Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

MS-HRC-SB-5-4

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Segment 1

[0097] improvement.[0098] With all this darkness round me I
feel less alone.
[0099] (pause)[0100] In a way.[0101] (pause)[0102] I
love to get up and move about in it, then back here
to...(hesitates) ...me.
[0103] (pause)[0104] Krapp.
[0105] (Pause)

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Segment 2

[0106] The grain, now what I wonder do I mean by that, I
mean...(hesitates) ...I suppose I mean those
things worth having when all the dust has - when all
my dust has settled.
[0107] I close my eyes and try and
imagine them.
[0108] (Pause.[0109] KRAPP closes his eyes briefly)

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Segment 3

[0110] Extraordinary silence this evening, I strain my ears
and do not hear a sound.
[0111] Old Miss McGlome always
sings at this hour.
[0112] But not tonight.[0113] Songs of her girl-
hood, she says.
[0114] Hard to think of her as a girl.[0115] Wonder-
ful woman though.
[0116] Connaught, I fancy.[0117] (pause)[0118] Shall
I sing when I am her age, if I ever am?
[0119] No.[0120] (pause)
[0121] Did I sing as a boy?[0122] No.[0123] (pause)[0124] Did I ever sing?
[0125] No.
[0126] (Pause)

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Segment 4

[0127] Just been listening to an old year, passages at random.
[0128] I did not check in the book, but it must be at least ten
or twelve years ago.
[0129] At that time I think I was still
living on and off with Bianca in Kedar Street.
[0130] Well
out of that, Jesus yes!
[0131] Hopeless business.[0132] (pause)
[0133] Not much about her, apart from a tribute to her eyes.

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Segment 5

[0134] Very warm.[0135] I suddenly saw them again.[0136] (pause)
[0137] Incomparable![0138] (pause)[0139] Ah well...[0140](pause)[0141] These
old P.M.s are gruesome, but I often find them -

(KRAPP switches off, broods, switches
on)


- a help before embarking on a new...(hesitates)
...retrospect.
[0142] Hard to believe I was ever that
young whelp.
[0143] The voice![0144] Jesus![0145] And the aspira-
tions!

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Segment 6

[0146] (brief laugh in which KRAPP joins)[0147] And
the resolutions!
[0148] (brief laugh in which KRAPP joins)
[0149] To drink less, in particular.[0150] (brief laugh of KRAPP
alone)
[0151] Statistics.[0152] Seventeen hundred hours, out of
the preceding eight thousand odd, consumed on
licensed premises alone.
[0153] More than 20 per cent,

Transcription
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