The Complete Dramatic Works by Samuel Beckett Read Free Book Online Page B

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    ESTRAGON: What a day!
    VLADIMIR: Who beat you? Tell me.
    ESTRAGON: Another day done with.
    VLADIMIR: Not yet.
    ESTRAGON: For me it’s over and done with, no matter what happens. [ Silence. ]I heard you singing.
    VLADIMIR: That’s right, I remember.
    ESTRAGON: That finished me. I said to myself, he’s all alone, he thinks I’m gone for ever,
     and he sings.
    VLADIMIR: One isn’t master of one’s moods. All day I’ve felt in great form. [ Pause. ]I didn’t get up in the night, not once!
    ESTRAGON: [ Sadly. ]You see, you piss better when I’m not there.
    VLADIMIR: I missed you … and at the same time I was happy. Isn’t that a queer thing?
    ESTRAGON: [ Shocked. ]Happy?
    VLADIMIR: Perhaps it’s not the right word.
    ESTRAGON: And now?
    VLADIMIR: Now? … [ Joyous. ]There you are again … [ Indifferent. ]There we are again … [ Gloomy. ]There I am again.
    ESTRAGON: You see, you feel worse when I’m with you. I feel better alone, too.
    VLADIMIR: [ Vexed. ]Then why do you always come crawling back?
    ESTRAGON: I don’t know.
    VLADIMIR : No, but I do. It’s because you don’t know how to defend yourself. I wouldn’t have
     let them beat you.
    ESTRAGON: You couldn’t have stopped them.
    VLADIMIR: Why not?
    ESTRAGON: There were ten of them.
    VLADIMIR: No, I mean before they beat you. I would have stopped you from doing whatever it
     was you were doing.
    ESTRAGON: I wasn’t doing anything.
    VLADIMIR: Then why did they beat you?
    ESTRAGON: I don’t know.
    VLADIMIR: Ah no, Gogo, the truth is there are things escape you that don’t escape me, you must
     feel it yourself.
    ESTRAGON: I tell you I wasn’t doing anything.
    VLADIMIR: Perhaps you weren’t. But it’s the way of doing it that counts, the way of doing it,
     if you want to go on living.
    ESTRAGON: I wasn’t doing anything.
    VLADIMIR: You must be happy, too, deep down, if you only knew it.
    ESTRAGON: Happy about what?
    VLADIMIR: To be back with me again.
    ESTRAGON: Would you say so?
    VLADIMIR: Say you are, even if it’s not true.
    ESTRAGON: What am I to say?
    VLADIMIR: Say, I am happy.
    ESTRAGON: I am happy.
    VLADIMIR: So am I.
    ESTRAGON: So am I.
    VLADIMIR: We are happy.
    ESTRAGON: We are happy. [ Silence. ]What do we do now, now that we are happy?
    VLADIMIR: Wait for Godot, [ ESTRAGON groans. Silence .] Things have changed since yesterday.
    ESTRAGON: And if he doesn’t come?
    VLADIMIR: [ After a moment of bewilderment. ]We’ll see when the time comes. [ Pause. ]I was saying that things have changed here since yesterday.
    ESTRAGON: Everything oozes.
    VLADIMIR: Look at the tree.
    ESTRAGON: It’s never the same pus from one second to the next.
    VLADIMIR: The tree, look at the tree.
    [ ESTRAGON looks at the tree. ]
    ESTRAGON: Was it not there yesterday?
    VLADIMIR: Yes, of course it was there. Do you not remember? We nearly hanged ourselves from
     it. But you wouldn’t. Do you not remember?
    ESTRAGON: You dreamt it.
    VLADIMIR: Is it possible that you’ve forgotten already?
    ESTRAGON: That’s the way I am. Either I forget immediately or I never forget.
    VLADIMIR: And Pozzo and Lucky, have you forgotten them too?
    ESTRAGON: Pozzo and Lucky?
    VLADIMIR: He’s forgotten everything!
    ESTRAGON: I remember a lunatic who kicked the shins off me. Then he played the fool.
    VLADIMIR: That was Lucky.
    ESTRAGON: I remember that. But when was it?
    VLADIMIR: And his keeper, do you not remember him?
    ESTRAGON: He gave me a bone.
    VLADIMIR: That was Pozzo.
    ESTRAGON: And all that was yesterday, you say?
    VLADIMIR: Yes, of course it was yesterday.
    ESTRAGON: And here where we are now?
    VLADIMIR: Where else do you think? Do you not recognize the place?
    ESTRAGON: [ Suddenly furious. ]Recognize! What is there to recognize? All my lousy life I’ve crawled about in the
     mud! And you talk to me about scenery! [ Looking wildly about him. ]Look at this muckheap! I’ve never stirred from it!
    VLADIMIR: Calm yourself, calm yourself.
    ESTRAGON: You and your landscapes! Tell me