References in Beckett's Endgame to "the end" or "the finish"

CLOV: Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.

(Pause.)

Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.

(Pause.)

I can't be punished any more.

HAMM: Have you not finished? Will you never finish?

(With sudden fury.)

Will this never finish?

(Nagg disappears into his bin, closes the lid behind him. Nell does not move. Frenziedly.)

My kingdom for a nightman!

(He whistles. Enter Clov.)

Clear away this muck! Chuck it in the sea!

(Clov goes to bins, halts.)

 

HAMM: You've forgotten the sex.

CLOV (vexed):

But he isn't finished. The sex goes on at the end.

(Pause.)

HAMM:

You haven't put on his ribbon.

CLOV (angrily):

But he isn't finished, I tell you! First you finish your dog and then you put on his ribbon!

(Pause.)

 

HAMM:

One! Silence!

(Pause.)

Where was I?

(Pause. Gloomily.)

It's finished, we're finished.

(Pause.)

Nearly finished.

(Pause.)

There'll be no more speech.

(Pause.)

Something dripping in my head, ever since the fontanelles.

(Stifled hilarity of Nagg.)

Splash, splash, always on the same spot.

(Pause.)

Perhaps it's a little vein.

 

HAMM: I'll soon have finished with this story.

(Pause.)

Unless I bring in other characters.

(Pause.)

But where would I find them?

(Pause.)

Where would I look for them?

(Pause. He whistles. Enter Clov.)

Let us pray to God.

 

HAMM: What dreams! Those forests!

(Pause.)

Enough, it's time it ended, in the shelter, too.

(Pause.)

And yet I hesitate, I hesitate to... to end. Yes, there it is, it's time it ended and yet I hesitate to---

(He yawns.)

---to end.

(Yawns.)

God, I'm tired, I'd be better off in bed.

(He whistles. Enter Clov immediately. He halts beside the chair.)

You pollute the air!

CLOV:

It may end.

(Pause.)

All life long the same questions, the same answers

 

HAMM:

This is not much fun.

(Pause.)

But that's always the way at the end of the day, isn't it, Clov?

CLOV:

Always.

HAMM:

It's the end of the day like any other day, isn't it, Clov?

CLOV:

Looks like it.

(Pause.)

HAMM (anguished):

What's happening, what's happening?

CLOV:

Something is taking its course.

(Pause.)

HAMM:

All right, be off.

(He leans back in his chair, remains motionless. Clov does not move, heaves a great groaning sigh. Hamm sits up.)

HAMM:

I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter---and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I'd take him by the hand and drag him to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness!

(Pause.)

He'd snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes.

(Pause.)

He alone had been spared.

(Pause.)

Forgotten.

(Pause.)

It appears the case is... was not so... so unusual

CLOV:

The end is terrific!

HAMM:

I prefer the middle.

(Pause.)

Is is not time for my pain-killer?

CLOV:

No!

(He goes to door, turns.)

I'll leave you.

CLOV:

Do you see how it goes on?

HAMM:

More or less.

CLOV:

Will it not soon be the end?

HAMM:

I'm afraid it will.

CLOV:

Pah! You'll make up another.

HAMM:

I don't know.

(Pause.)

I feel rather drained.

(Pause.)

The prolonged creative effort.

(Pause.)

If I could drag myself down to the sea! I'd make a pillow of sand for my head and the tide would come.

CLOV:

There's no more tide.

(Pause.)

 

HAMM:The end is in the beginning and yet you go on. (Pause.)

Perhaps I could go on with my story, end it and begin another.

(Pause.)

Perhaps I could throw myself out on the floor.

(He pushes himself painfully off his seat, falls back again.)

Dig my nails into the cracks and drag myself forward with my fingers.

(Pause.)

It will be the end and there I'll be, wondering what can have brought it on and wondering what can have...

(he hesitates)

...why it was so long coming.

(Pause.)

There I'll be, in the old shelter, alone against the silence and...

(he hesitates)

...the stillness. If I can hold my peace, and sit quiet, it will be all over with sound, and motion, all over and done with.

(Pause.)

 

HAMM:

Don't sing.

CLOV (turning towards Hamm):

One hasn't the right to sing any more?

HAMM:

No.

CLOV:

Then how can it end?

HAMM:

You want it to end?

CLOV:

I want to sing.

HAMM:

I can't prevent you.

(Pause. Clov turns towards window right.)

 

HAMM:

Never!

(Pause.)

Put me in my coffin.

CLOV:

There are no more coffins.

HAMM:

Then let it end!

(Clov goes towards ladder.)

With a bang!

(Clov gets up on ladder, gets down again, looks for telescope, sees it, picks it up, gets up on ladder, raises telescope.)

Of darkness! And me? Did anyone ever have pity on me?

CLOV (lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm):

What?

(Pause.)

Is it me you're referring to?

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

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 (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.

HAMM:

It's we are obliged to each other.

(Pause. Clov goes towards door.)

One thing more.

(Clov halts.)

A last favor.

(Exit Clov.)

Cover me with the sheet.

(Long pause.)

No? Good.

(Pause.)

Me to play.

(Pause. Wearily.)

Old endgame lost of old, play and lose and have done with losing.

(Pause. More animated.)

Let me see.

(Pause.)

Ah yes!

(He tries to move the chair, using the gaff as before. Enter Clov, dressed for the road. Panama hat, tweed coat, raincoat over his arm, umbrella, bag. He halts by the door and stands there, impassive and motionless, his eyes fixed on Hamm, till the end. Hamm gives up:)

Good.