Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Page B

That’s the idea, let’s ask each other questions.
    VLADIMIR : What do you mean, at least there’s that?
    ESTRAGON : That much less misery.
    VLADIMIR : True.
    ESTRAGON : Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
    VLADIMIR : What is terrible is to
have
thought.
    ESTRAGON : But did that ever happen to us?
    VLADIMIR : Where are all these corpses from?
    ESTRAGON : These skeletons.
    VLADIMIR : Tell me that.
    ESTRAGON : True.
    VLADIMIR : We must have thought a little.
    ESTRAGON : At the very beginning.
    VLADIMIR : A charnel-house! A charnel-house!
    ESTRAGON : You don’t have to look.
    VLADIMIR : You can’t help looking.
    ESTRAGON : True.
    VLADIMIR : Try as one may.
    ESTRAGON : I beg your pardon?
    VLADIMIR : Try as one may.
    ESTRAGON : We should turn resolutely towards Nature.
    VLADIMIR : We’ve tried that.
    ESTRAGON : True.
    VLADIMIR : Oh it’s not the worst, I know.
    ESTRAGON : What?
    VLADIMIR : To have thought.
    ESTRAGON : Obviously.
    VLADIMIR : But we could have done without it.
    ESTRAGON : Que voulez-vous?
    VLADIMIR : I beg your pardon?
    ESTRAGON : Que voulez-vous.
    VLADIMIR : Ah! que voulez-vous. Exactly.
    Silence
.
    ESTRAGON : That wasn’t such a bad little canter.
    VLADIMIR : Yes, but now well have to find something else.
    ESTRAGON : Let me see.
    He takes off his hat, concentrates
.
    VLADIMIR : Let me see. (
He takes off his hat, concentrates
.
    Long silence
.) Ah!
    They put on their hats, relax
.
    ESTRAGON : Well?
    VLADIMIR : What was I saying, we could go on from there.
    ESTRAGON : What were you saying when?
    VLADIMIR : At the very beginning.
    ESTRAGON : The very beginning of WHAT?
    VLADIMIR : This evening . . . I was saying . . . I was saying . . .
    ESTRAGON : I’m not a historian.
    VLADIMIR : Wait . . . we embraced . . . we were happy . . . happy . . . what do we do now that we’re happy . . . go on waiting . . . waiting . . . let me think . . . it’s coming . . . go on waiting . . . now that we’re happy . . . let me see . . . ah! The tree!
    ESTRAGON : The tree?
    VLADIMIR : Do you not remember?
    ESTRAGON : I’m tired.
    VLADIMIR : Look at it.
    They look at the tree
.
    ESTRAGON : I see nothing.
    VLADIMIR : But yesterday evening it was all black and bare.
    And now it’s covered with leaves.
    ESTRAGON : Leaves?
    VLADIMIR : In a single night.
    ESTRAGON : It must be the Spring.
    VLADIMIR : But in a single night!
    ESTRAGON : I tell you we weren’t here yesterday. Another of your nightmares.
    VLADIMIR : And where were we yesterday evening according to you?
    ESTRAGON : How would I know? In another compartment.
    There’s no lack of void.
    VLADIMIR : (
sure of himself
). Good. We weren’t here yesterday evening. Now what did we do yesterday evening?
    ESTRAGON : Do?
    VLADIMIR : Try and remember.
    ESTRAGON : Do . . . I suppose we blathered.
    VLADIMIR : (
controlling himself
). About what?
    ESTRAGON : Oh . . . this and that I suppose, nothing in particular. (
With assurance
.) Yes, now I remember, yesterday evening we spent blathering about nothing in particular. That’s been going on now for half a century.
    VLADIMIR : You don’t remember any fact, any circumstance?
    ESTRAGON : (
weary
). Don’t torment me, Didi.
    VLADIMIR : The sun. The moon. Do you not remember?
    ESTRAGON : They must have been there, as usual.
    VLADIMIR : You didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary?
    ESTRAGON : Alas!
    VLADIMIR : And Pozzo? And Lucky?
    ESTRAGON : Pozzo?
    VLADIMIR : The bones.
    ESTRAGON : They were like fishbones.
    VLADIMIR : It was Pozzo gave them to you.
    ESTRAGON : I don’t know.
    VLADIMIR : And the kick.
    ESTRAGON : That’s right, someone gave me a kick.
    VLADIMIR : It was Lucky gave it to you.
    ESTRAGON : And all that was yesterday?
    VLADIMIR : Show your leg.
    ESTRAGON : Which?
    VLADIMIR : Both. Pull up your trousers. (
Estragon gives a leg to Vladimir, staggers. Vladimir takes the leg. They stagger
.) Pull up your trousers.
    ESTRAGON : I