HAMM:
It's the end, Clov, we've come to the end. I don't need you any more.
(Pause.)
CLOV:
Lucky for you.
(He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Leave me the gaff.
(Clov gives him the gaff, goes towards door, halts, looks at alarm-clock, takes it down, looks round for a better place to put it, goes to bins, puts it on lid of Nagg's bin. Pause.)
CLOV:
I'll leave you.
(He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Before you go...
(Clov halts near door.)
...say something.
CLOV:
There is nothing to say.
HAMM:
A few words... to ponder... in my heart.
CLOV:
Your heart!
HAMM:
Yes.
(Pause. Forcibly.)
Yes!
(Pause.)
With the rest, in the end, the shadows, the murmurs, all the trouble, to end up with.
(Pause.)
Clov... He never spoke to me. Then, in the end, before he went, without my having asked him, he spoke to me. He said...
CLOV (despairingly):
Ah...!
HAMM:
Something... from your heart.
CLOV:
My heart!
HAMM:
A few words... from your heart.
(Pause.)
CLOV (fixed gaze, tonelessly, towards auditorium):
They said to me, That's love, yes, yes, not a doubt, now you see how—
HAMM:
Articulate!
CLOV (as before):
How easy it is. They said to me, That's friendship, yes, yes, no question, you've found it. They said to me, Here's the place, stop, raise your head and look at all that beauty. That order! They said to me, Come now, you're not a brute beast, think upon these things and you'll see how all becomes clear. And simple! They said to me, What skilled attention they get, all these dying of their wounds.
HAMM:
Enough!
CLOV (as before):
I say to myself— sometimes, Clov, you must learn to suffer better than that if you want them to weary of punishing you— one day. I say to myself—sometimes, Clov, you must be better than that if you want them to let you go—one day. But I feel too old, and too far, to form new habits. Good, it'll never end, I'll never go.
(Pause.)
Then one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I don't understand, it dies, or it's me, I don't understand that either. I ask the words that remain— sleeping, waking, morning, evening. They have nothing to say.
(Pause.)
I open the door of the cell and go. I am so bowed I only see my feet, if I open my eyes, and between my legs a little trail of black dust. I say to myself that the earth is extinguished, though I never saw it lit.
(Pause.)
It's easy going.
(Pause.)
When I fall I'll weep for happiness.
(Pause. He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Clov!
(Clov halts, without turning.)
Nothing.
(Clov moves on.)
Clov!
(Clov halts, without turning.)
CLOV:
This is what we call making an exit.
It's the end, Clov, we've come to the end. I don't need you any more.
(Pause.)
CLOV:
Lucky for you.
(He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Leave me the gaff.
(Clov gives him the gaff, goes towards door, halts, looks at alarm-clock, takes it down, looks round for a better place to put it, goes to bins, puts it on lid of Nagg's bin. Pause.)
CLOV:
I'll leave you.
(He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Before you go...
(Clov halts near door.)
...say something.
CLOV:
There is nothing to say.
HAMM:
A few words... to ponder... in my heart.
CLOV:
Your heart!
HAMM:
Yes.
(Pause. Forcibly.)
Yes!
(Pause.)
With the rest, in the end, the shadows, the murmurs, all the trouble, to end up with.
(Pause.)
Clov... He never spoke to me. Then, in the end, before he went, without my having asked him, he spoke to me. He said...
CLOV (despairingly):
Ah...!
HAMM:
Something... from your heart.
CLOV:
My heart!
HAMM:
A few words... from your heart.
(Pause.)
CLOV (fixed gaze, tonelessly, towards auditorium):
They said to me, That's love, yes, yes, not a doubt, now you see how—
HAMM:
Articulate!
CLOV (as before):
How easy it is. They said to me, That's friendship, yes, yes, no question, you've found it. They said to me, Here's the place, stop, raise your head and look at all that beauty. That order! They said to me, Come now, you're not a brute beast, think upon these things and you'll see how all becomes clear. And simple! They said to me, What skilled attention they get, all these dying of their wounds.
HAMM:
Enough!
CLOV (as before):
I say to myself— sometimes, Clov, you must learn to suffer better than that if you want them to weary of punishing you— one day. I say to myself—sometimes, Clov, you must be better than that if you want them to let you go—one day. But I feel too old, and too far, to form new habits. Good, it'll never end, I'll never go.
(Pause.)
Then one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I don't understand, it dies, or it's me, I don't understand that either. I ask the words that remain— sleeping, waking, morning, evening. They have nothing to say.
(Pause.)
I open the door of the cell and go. I am so bowed I only see my feet, if I open my eyes, and between my legs a little trail of black dust. I say to myself that the earth is extinguished, though I never saw it lit.
(Pause.)
It's easy going.
(Pause.)
When I fall I'll weep for happiness.
(Pause. He goes towards door.)
HAMM:
Clov!
(Clov halts, without turning.)
Nothing.
(Clov moves on.)
Clov!
(Clov halts, without turning.)
CLOV:
This is what we call making an exit.
