Free The Complete Dramatic Works by Samuel Beckett Page B

recognize us?
    POZZO: I am blind.
    [ Silence .]
    ESTRAGON: Perhaps he can see into the future.
    VLADIMIR: Since when?
    POZZO: I used to have wonderful sight – but are you friends?
    ESTRAGON: [ Laughing noisily .]He wants to know if we are friends!
    VLADIMIR: No, he means friends of his.
    ESTRAGON: Well?
    VLADIMIR: We’ve proved we are, by helping him.
    ESTRAGON: Exactly. Would we have helped him if we weren’t his friends?
    VLADIMIR: Possibly.
    ESTRAGON: True.
    VLADIMIR: Don’t let’s quibble about that now.
    POZZO: You are not highwaymen?
    ESTRAGON: Highwaymen! Do we look like highwaymen?
    VLADIMIR: Damn it, can’t you see the man is blind!
    ESTRAGON: Damn it, so he is. [ Pause .]So he says.
    POZZO: Don’t leave me!
    VLADIMIR: No question of it.
    ESTRAGON: For the moment.
    POZZO: What time is it?
    VLADIMIR: [ Inspecting the sky. ] Seven o’clock … eight o’clock …
    ESTRAGON: That depends what time of year it is.
    POZZO: Is it evening?
    [ Silence. VLADIMIR and   ESTRAGON scrutinize the sunset .]
    ESTRAGON: It’s rising.
    VLADIMIR: Impossible.
    ESTRAGON: Perhaps it’s the dawn.
    VLADIMIR: Don’t be a fool. It’s the west over there.
    ESTRAGON: How do you know?
    POZZO: [ Anguished .]Is it evening?
    VLADIMIR: Anyway it hasn’t moved.
    ESTRAGON: I tell you it’s rising.
    POZZO: Why don’t you answer me?
    ESTRAGON: Give us a chance.
    VLADIMIR: [ Reassuring .]It’s evening, sir, it’s evening, night is drawing nigh. My friend here would have
     me doubt it and I must confess he shook me for a moment. But it is not for nothing
     I have lived through this long day and I can assure you it is very near the end of
     its repertory. [ Pause. ]How do you feel now?
    ESTRAGON: How much longer must we cart him round? [ They half release him, catch him again as he falls .] We are not caryatids!
    VLADIMIR: You were saying your sight used to be good, if I heard you right.
    POZZO: Wonderful! Wonderful, wonderful sight!
    [ Silence .]
    ESTRAGON: [ Irritably .]Expand! Expand!
    VLADIMIR: Let him alone. Can’t you see he’s thinking of the days when he was happy? [ Pause. ] Memoria praeteritorum bonorum –that must be unpleasant.
    ESTRAGON: We wouldn’t know.
    VLADIMIR: And it came on you all of a sudden?
    POZZO: Quite wonderful!
    VLADIMIR: I’m asking you if it came on you all of a sudden.
    POZZO: I woke up one fine day as blind as Fortune. [ Pause .] Sometimes I wonder if I’m not still asleep.
    VLADIMIR: And when was that?
    POZZO: I don’t know.
    VLADIMIR: But no later than yesterday –
    POZZO: [ Violently .]Don’t question me! The blind have no notion of time. The things of time are hidden
     from them too.
    VLADIMIR: Well just fancy that! I could have sworn it was just the opposite.
    ESTRAGON: I’m going.
    POZZO: Where are we?
    VLADIMIR: I couldn’t tell you.
    POZZO: It isn’t by any chance the place known as the Board?
    VLADIMIR: Never heard of it.
    POZZO: What is it like?
    VLADIMIR: [ Looking round .]It’s indescribable. It’s like nothing. There’s nothing. There’s a tree.
    POZZO: Then it’s not the Board.
    ESTRAGON: [ Sagging .]Some diversion!
    POZZO: Where is my menial?
    VLADIMIR: He’s about somewhere.
    POZZO: Why doesn’t he answer when I call?
    VLADIMIR: I don’t know. He seems to be sleeping. Perhaps he’s dead.
    POZZO: What happened exactly?
    ESTRAGON: Exactly!
    VLADIMIR: The two of you slipped. [ Pause .]And fell.
    POZZO: Go and see is he hurt.
    VLADIMIR: We can’t leave you.
    POZZO: You needn’t both go.
    VLADIMIR: [ To ESTRAGON .] You go.
    ESTRAGON: After what he did to me? Never!
    POZZO: Yes yes, let your friend go, he stinks so. [ Silence .]
    What is he waiting for?
    VLADIMIR: What are you waiting for?
    ESTRAGON: I’m waiting for Godot.
    [ Silence .]
    VLADIMIR: What exactly should he do?
    POZZO: Well to begin with he should pull on the rope, as hard as he likes so long as he
     doesn’t strangle him. He usually responds to that. If not he should give him a taste
     of his boot, in the