Endgame and Act Without Words. Samuel Beckett

      No phone calls?

      [Pause.]

      Don’t we laugh?

      CLOV [after reflection] I don’t feel like it.

      HAMM [after reflection] Nor I.

      [Pause.]

      Clov!

      CLOV Yes.

      HAMM Nature has forgotten us.

      CLOV There’s no more nature.

      HAMM No more nature! You exaggerate.

      CLOV In the vicinity.

      HAMM But we breathe, we change! We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom! Our ideals!

      CLOV Then she hasn’t forgotten us.

      HAMM But you say there is none.

      CLOV [sadly] No one that ever lived ever thought so crooked as we.

      HAMM We do what we can.

      CLOV We shouldn’t.

      [Pause.]

      HAMM You’re a bit of all right, aren’t you?

      CLOV A smithereen.

      [Pause.]

      HAMM This is slow work.

      [Pause.]

      Is it not time for my pain-killer?

      CLOV No.

      [Pause.]

      I’ll leave you, I have things to do.

      HAMM In your kitchen?

      CLOV Yes.

      HAMM What, I’d like to know.

      CLOV I look at the wall.

      HAMM The wall! And what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene?

      Naked bodies?

      CLOV I see my light dying.

      HAMM Your light dying! Listen to that! Well, it can die just as well here, your light. Take a look at me and then come back and tell me what you think of your light.

      [Pause.]

      CLOV You shouldn’t speak to me like that.

      [Pause.]

      HAMM [coldly] Forgive me.

      [Pause. Louder.]

      I said, Forgive me.

      CLOV I heard you.

      [The lid of Nagg’s bin lifts. His hands appear, gripping the rim. Then his head emerges. In his mouth the biscuit. He listens.]

      HAMM Did your seeds come up?

      CLOV No.

      HAMM Did you scratch round them to see if they had sprouted?

      CLOV They haven’t sprouted.

      HAMM Perhaps it’s still too early.

      CLOV If they were going to sprout they would have sprouted.

      [Violently.]

      They’ll never sprout!

      [Pause. Nagg takes biscuit in his hand.]

      HAMM This is not much fun.

      [Pause.]

      But that’s always the way at the end of the day, isn’t it, Clov?

      CLOV Always.

      HAMM It’s the end of the day like any other day, isn’t it, Clov?

      CLOV Looks like it.

      [Pause.]

      HAMM [anguished] What’s happening, what’s happening?

      CLOV Something is taking its course.

      [Pause.]

      HAMM All right, be off.

      [He leans back in his chair, remains motionless. Clov does not move, heaves a great groaning sigh. Hamm sits up.]

      I thought I told you to be off.

      CLOV I’m trying.

      [He goes to door, halts.]

      Ever since I was whelped.

      [Exit Clov.]

      HAMM We’re getting on.

      [He leans back in his chair, remains motionless. Nagg knocks on the lid of the other bin. Pause. He knocks harder. The lid lifts and the hands of Nell appear, gripping the rim. Then her head emerges. Lace cap. Very white face.]

      NELL What is it, my pet?

      [Pause.]

      Time for love?

      NAGG Were you asleep?

      NELL Oh no!

      NAGG Kiss me.

      NELL We can’t.

      NAGG Try.

      [Their heads strain towards each other, fail to meet, fall apart again.]

      NELL Why this farce, day after day?

      [Pause.]

      NAGG I’ve lost me tooth.

      NELL When?

      NAGG I had it yesterday.