M:iE. KRAP
Doctor, you will kill her.
DR. PIOL'K
I want a child, first off, to amuse
me during my leisure hours, more
and more brief and dreary; second, that it should receive the
torch from my hands, when they
can no longer bear it.
M. KRAP
That in essence is the advantage
of sons.
MME. KRAP
But you will kill her.
DR. PIOUK
For a long time I have been debating this very question with your
sister, Madame, quite as much
before as since we were united.
Isn 't that so, Marguerite?
M:iE. PIOL'K
You were just perfect.
Dr. Piouk
During those delightful, awful
weeks preceding our vows, while
we roamed hand in hand in the
Campagna or, on the terraces of
Tivoli, sought the advice of the
moon , our conversation ran
almost entirely on this very question. Isn ' t that so, Marguerite?
MME. PIOL'K
Almost solely, my darling.
M�IE. KRAP
(To M . Krap) What's the matter
with you, there , sneering away in
ELEUTHERIA
45
your corner?
M. KRAP
I was thinking about the moon
and you and me, seeking its
advice.
DR. PIOUK
Engaged at last, we went though
hideous periods and, speaking for
myself, I would not want to relive
them, not for anything.
M. KRAP
What can you do? Engaged humans are that way. I recall a certain night, in Robinson. Violette was ahead of me in the tree and I
assure you -
MME. KRAP
Be quiet!
DR. PIOUK
And since our official, open
cohabitation which, by the way,
was blessed by His Holiness, how
many nights have we not worn
out, until cock crow, weighing the
pros and cons, incapable of making a decision?
M. KRAP
You should have taken the plunge
head first.
DR. PIOUK
That is what we did - (He takes
out his memorandum-book and
flips through it) - wait - on the
Saturday night preceding Sunday
last. (He turns a few pages, makes
a note of something, puts the
memorandum-book back in his
pocket) And you see , we were sick
and tired of splitting hairs. (Ex-
46
SAMUEL BECKETI
pressive gesture) Now we are
waiting. (He gets up) And by the
will of God.
MME. KRAP
What is the matter with you?
DR. PIOUK
The matter with me?
MME. KRAP
You are not going to leave us?
M. KRAP
I invited them for dinner. But they
are all fired up to be alone.
MME. KRAP
To stay for dinner! Using what?
M. KRAP
I don 't know. Yesterday's lamb.
MME. KRAP
Lamb ! You mean mutton . What
am I saying, mutton , ram, it smells
of wool and coupling all over the
house.
DR. PIOUK
You tempt me. Unfortunately we
are expected somewhere.
M. KRAP
Put yourself in their place .
MME. KRAP
If I were fifty, no, that's too much ,
forty years younger, Doctor, I
would go with you to all the hot
spots, in spite of the fact that
strictly speaking you do not make
much of an impression on me.
But when you speak .. . ! (To M.
Krap) What are you saying?
M. KRAP
Nothing. I was quivering.
MME. PIOUK
We are expected somewhere .
DR. PIOUK
Now let's not get carried away,
dearest.
MME. KRAP
Let's go to the Terminus.
DR. PIOUK
Mlle . Skunk is not saying any-
ELEUTHERIA
47
thing.
MllE. SKUNK
What do you want me to say? I am
waiting to know why I was summoned.
MME. KRAP
You -ill come with us. We'll all get
drunk.
DR. PIOUK
I just love blowouts.
M. KRAP
And your lower belly?
MME. KRAP
I will speak to the Doctor about it.
Would you be so kind, Doctor?
DR. PIOUK
Not before the cheese, dear lady.
MME. KRAP
Look here, you rascal you !
MME. PIOUK
(To Mme. Krap) Your outing did
you a world of good.
(A silence)
DR. PIOUK
You will come, Mademoiselle?
MllE. SKUNK
I am free.
MME. KRAP
It's decided. The Terminus, in
half an hour.
(Everybody gets up, except M.
Krap and Mlle . Skunk)
DR. PIOUK
(To M. Krap) See you soon . I have
many things to tell you.
M. KRAP
Forgive me for not getting up, I
have a slight -
MME. KRAP
I will show you out. Aren 't you
coming, Olga?
Mll.E. SKUNK
I will go with you. I don ' t feel like
changing.
DR. PIOUK
(To Mlle . Skunk) Now don 't let us
down !
48
SAMUEL BECKETT
MME. KRAP
(To Mlle . Skunk) As you like .
(Exit Mme . Krap, Mme . and Dr.
Piouk. A rather long silence)
M. KRAP
Open your jacket.
Mu..E. SKUNK
I am cold.
M. KRAP
That does not matter. Lift up your
skirt. Again . There. Now keep still.
Breathe in . (Mlle. Skunk takes her
head in her hands, bends all the
way over and weeps. She is shaken
with sobs) God damn it! (The fit
goes on ) Stop! (Mlle. Skunk is
sobbing worse than ever) She
cries like a scullion . (He raises his
voice) You are ugly, Olga, you
hear me, disgustingly ugly. We 're
done for. (Mlle . Skunk calms
down little by little, lifts up her
worn-looking face, crosses her legs
which grief had uncrossed, lifts up
her skirt, etc . ) You are pretty!
Who taught you to blubber as if
- (He is loath to repeat himself)
- as if - (It does not come to
him) - as in life? You are forgetting where you are .
Mu..E. SKU!K
You know very well.
M. KRAP
What?
MllE. SKUl'K
Who taught me.
M. KRAP
That is not the question . And
what about me, you think I don 't
feel like howling? Only in my case,
ELEUTHERIA
49
if l - (He stops himself, struck by
a horrible suspicion )
You never
carried on like that in front of
him needless to say?
MLLE. SKUNK
Of course not.
M. KRAP
You swear it?
MLLE. SKUNK
Yes.
M. KRAP
Then all is still not lost.
MriE. SKUNK
I dare say I should have.
M. KRAP
What?
MLLE. SKUNK
Wept in front of him, as in life .
( A silence)
M. KRAP
That would have gotten you
nowhere .
MLLE. SKUNK
Maybe it would have.
(A silence)
M. KRAP
I ' m not much longer for this
world.
MLLE. SKUNK
You mustn ' t say that.
M. KRAP
I feel like getting it off my chest.
( Pause) For once. (Pause) With
someone who does not hate me.
(Pause) But maybe you do hate
me.
MLLE. SKUNK
You know very well I don ' t.
M. KRAP
Why?
MLLE. SKUNK
I don ' t know.
M. KRAP
It is a thing I believe I have known
only lately. (A silence ) Are you
willing?
MLLE. SKUNK
I am such a blockhead.
50
SAMUEL BECKETT
M. KRAP
What does it matter?
Mu.E. SKUNK
I will not understand.
M. KRAP
You will think about it now and
then?
Mll.E. SKUNK
Yes, of course, father.
M. KRAP
Father?
Mll.E. SKUNK
What? (Pause) I called you father?
M. KRAP
It did seem so.
Mll.E. SKUNK
(Embarrassed) Oh! (Her lips
tremble)
M. KRAP
Don ' t start in again. (Mlle. Skunk
gets a grip on herself) You will
weep when you are alone.
Mll.E. SKUNK
Yes.
(A silence)
M. KRAP
Don 't leave your post. I am searching for my ideas. They are scattered. As on a battlefield. (Pause) Attention . I am going to begin.
Mll.E. SKUNK
Don ' t go too fast.
M. KRAP
( In a doctrinal tone) The error is
one of wanting to live . It is not
possible. There is nothing to live
off, in the life that is lent us. How
stupid it all is!
Mll.E. SKUNK
Yes.
M. KRAP
Am I not right? I resume. It is a
question of materials. Either there
are too many and you do not
know where to begin or there are
too few and it is not worth your
ELEUTHERIA
5 1
while to begin. But all the same
you do begin, afraid of doing
nothing. Sometimes you even
believe you are going to finish,
that does happen . Then you see it
is only a bluff. So you begin again,
within the too much and the too
little. Why can 't you make the best
of a life that is only a bluff? It
must be the divine origin. They
tell you life is just that, beginning
and beginning again. Not so, it is
only the fear of doing nothing.
Life is not possible. I am not
putting it right.
MLLE. SKUNK
I do not understand anything.
M. KRAP
That imbecile of a doctor, with his
abortions and his euthanasia. Did
you hear him?
MLLE. SKUNK
I did not pay very much attention .
M. KRAP
A technician of the basest sort.
MLLE. SKUNK
I do not know what you mean
when you speak of life and of
living. Victor neither, I do not
understand him at all. I am one
who feels myself living. Why do
you want that to have a meaning?
M. KRAP
My God ! wind it up and it also
thinks.
MILE. SKUNK
You cannot say quite simply what
you want?
M. KRAP
What I would have wan ted?
52
SAMUEL BECKETT
MllE. SKUNK
If you prefer.
M. KRAP
I would have wanted to be
pleased, for a whole moment.
MllE. SKUNK
But pleased with what?
M. KRAP
With having been born , and with
not yet having died. (A silence) I
am finishing up quickly, for I have
a feeling my wife draws near.
MllE. SKUNK
The end of life?
M. KRAP
My WIFE. That catastrophe.
MllE. SKUNK
But -
M. KRAP
One moment. Finding it therefore impossible to live and recoiling from the great cure, through a sense of decency, or through
cowardice, or because of the very
fact that he is not living, what can
man do to avoid the oh so very
discreet and unobtrusive insanity
he has been taught to dread?
(Pause ) He can pretend to be
living and that others live . (Raises
his hand) One moment. That is
the solution , the ruse rather, I
have been rallying round these
many days. I do not say that it is
the only one . But I am too old to
be learning from my - no, I will
mention no names. And there you
have it. No, do not ask me any
questions, for I cannot answer
them. You are smiling, but that
ELEUTHERIA
5 3
doesn 't matter. You should smile
more often . Except when you feel
like it. Like me . (He unlocks his
jaw in an enormous frozen smile .
Mlle . Skunk recoils. End of smile)
MllE. SKUNK
You are horrid.
M. KRAP
Yes. And another thing.
MLLE. SKUNK
No, no, I have had enough .
M. KRAP
I ask only that you say yes.
MllE. SKUNK
Say yes? To what?
M. KRAP
To a little prayer.
MLLE. SKUNK
No, no, I cannot.
M. KRAP
Promise. I am dying. (A silence)
You will pretend to live for my
son 's sake .
MllE. SKUNK
Yes, yes, anything you want.
M. KRAP
So that he looks like he is living.
MllE. SKUNK
Yes, yes, I promise.
M. KRAP
You have missed the point.
MllE. SKUNK
I promise , I promise .
(A silence)
M. KRAP
You have no desire to kiss me.
(Mlle. Skunk starts to cry again) It
doesn 't matter. You are right. And
please do not start crying. Wait
(Enter Mme. Krap)
wait until you are alone .
MME. KRAP
You are ready, Olga?
MLLE. SKUNK
At once . (S
he gets up, goes)
MME. KRAP
Where are you going?
MLLE. SKUNK
To freshen up. (Exit)
54
SAM UEL BECKETI
M .KRAP
.
She understood.
MME .KRAP
.
Hurry up, Victor.
M .KRAP
.
Victor? My name is not Victor.
MME . .KRAP
Hurry up. You haven't even
shaved.
M . .KRAP
I am not going out.
MME . .KRAP
(Taking him by the arm) Out you
go, get up.
M . .KRAP
Do not make me have to kill you,
Violette .
MME . .KRAP
Kill me! You ! Kill me ! Me !
(Laughs heartily)
M .KRAP
.
(Taking a razor out of his pocket)
Help me get up. (Mme. Krap
draws back) I would have preferred (He tries to get up) to
leave you to your cancer. More 's
the pity. (He half-rises)
MME . .KRAP
(Moving back toward the door)
You are completely mad !
M . .KRAP
(Still floundering around in his
armchair) Once I ' m up it will be
plain sailing.
MME . .KRAP
(Realizing he cannot get up) You
stinking old cripple ! (Comes back
toward him) To think that you
frightened me even for a minute !
M . .KRAP
(Dropping back again) Not easy
to sit up straight, even to kill your
wife .
MME . .KRAP
Scoundrel!
ELEUTHERlA
55
M. KRAP
Me too?
MME. KRAP
Scum !
M. KRAP
In any case, you 'll get what you
deserve . I will cut your throat
tonight, while you are snoring
away.
MME. KRAP
(Terror-stricken at the prospects
thus opened up and perhaps in
particular by that of spending an
anxious evening among her
guests) Henri, don ' t be like that.
Come to your senses! Think of all
we have gone through together!
To our great sorrow! Let us be
friends.
M. KRAP
( Graciously) Sit down for a
minute or two. (Mme . Krap sits
down) You saw Victor?
MME. KRAP
I swear that I did not. I have
simply been walking. I was irritated. I have already told you that.
M. KRAP
What did he say to you?
(Enter Mlle. Skunk)
MME. KRAP
Wait for me one minute, Olga. I
am coming immediately.
(Exit Mlle . Skunk)
M. KRAP
There is no need to admit that
you are lying, nor to apologize for
it. Simply tell me what he said to
you.
MME. KRAP
(Straining) He told me that he
did not want to see me any more .
56
SAMUEL BECKETI
M. KRAP
And you, how were you?
MME. KRAP
How was I? I do not understand.
M. KRAP
You played the worried mother.