Waiting for Godot Read Free

time.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Come in? On our hands and knees.
     
    ESTRAGON:
As bad as that?
     
    VLADIMIR:
Your Worship wishes to assert his prerogatives?
     
    ESTRAGON:
We've no rights any more?
Laugh of Vladimir, stifled as before, less the smile.
     
    VLADIMIR:
You'd make me laugh if it wasn't prohibited.
     
    ESTRAGON:
We've lost our rights?
     
    VLADIMIR:
(distinctly). We got rid of them.
Silence. They remain motionless, arms dangling, heads sunk, sagging at the
knees.
     
    ESTRAGON:
(feebly). We're not tied? (Pause.) We're not�
     
    VLADIMIR:
Listen!
They listen, grotesquely rigid.
     
    ESTRAGON:
I hear nothing.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Hsst! (They listen. Estragon loses his balance, almost falls. He clutches the arm
of Vladimir, who totters. They listen, huddled together.) Nor I.
Sighs of relief. They relax and separate.
     
    ESTRAGON:
You gave me a fright.
     
    VLADIMIR:
I thought it was he.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Who?
     
    VLADIMIR:
Godot.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Pah! The wind in the reeds.
     
    VLADIMIR:
I could have sworn I heard shouts.
     
    ESTRAGON:
And why would he shout?
     
    VLADIMIR:
At his horse.
Silence.
     
    ESTRAGON:
(violently). I'm hungry!
     
    VLADIMIR:
Do you want a carrot?
     
    ESTRAGON:
Is that all there is?
     
    VLADIMIR:
I might have some turnips.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Give me a carrot. (Vladimir rummages in his pockets, takes out a turnip and
gives it to Estragon who takes a bite out of it. Angrily.) It's a turnip!
     
    VLADIMIR:
Oh pardon! I could have sworn it was a carrot. (He rummages again in his
pockets, finds nothing but turnips.) All that's turnips. (He rummages.) You must
have eaten the last. (He rummages.) Wait, I have it. (He brings out a carrot and
gives it to Estragon.) There, dear fellow. (Estragon wipes the carrot on his sleeve
and begins to eat it.) Make it last, that's the end of them.
     
    ESTRAGON:
(chewing). I asked you a question.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Ah.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Did you reply?
     
    VLADIMIR:
How's the carrot?
     
    ESTRAGON:
It's a carrot.
     
    VLADIMIR:
So much the better, so much the better. (Pause.) What was it you wanted to
know?
     
    ESTRAGON:
I've forgotten. (Chews.) That's what annoys me. (He looks at the carrot
appreciatively, dangles it between finger and thumb.) I'll never forget this carrot.
(He sucks the end of it meditatively.) Ah yes, now I remember.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Well?
     
    ESTRAGON:
(his mouth full, vacuously). We're not tied?
     
    VLADIMIR:
I don't hear a word you're saying.
     
    ESTRAGON:
(chews, swallows). I'm asking you if we're tied.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Tied?
     
    ESTRAGON:
Ti-ed.
     
    VLADIMIR:
How do you mean tied?
     
    ESTRAGON:
Down.
     
    VLADIMIR:
But to whom? By whom?
     
    ESTRAGON:
To your man.
     
    VLADIMIR:
To Godot? Tied to Godot! What an idea! No question of it. (Pause.) For the
moment.
     
    ESTRAGON:
His name is Godot?
     
    VLADIMIR:
I think so.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Fancy that. (He raises what remains of the carrot by the stub of leaf, twirls it
before his eyes.) Funny, the more you eat the worse it gets.
     
    VLADIMIR:
With me it's just the opposite.
     
    ESTRAGON:
In other words?
     
    VLADIMIR:
I get used to the muck as I go along.
     
    ESTRAGON:
(after prolonged reflection). Is that the opposite?
     
    VLADIMIR:
Question of temperament.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Of character.
     
    VLADIMIR:
Nothing you can do about it.
     
    ESTRAGON:
No use struggling.
     
    VLADIMIR:
One is what one is.
     
    ESTRAGON:
No use wriggling.
     
    VLADIMIR:
The essential doesn't change.
     
    ESTRAGON:
Nothing to be done. (He proffers the remains of the carrot to Vladimir.) Like to
finish it?
A terrible cry, close at hand. Estragon drops the carrot. They remain motionless,
then together make a sudden rush towards the wings. Estragon stops halfway,
runs back, picks up the carrot, stuffs it in his pocket, runs to rejoin Vladimir who
is waiting for him, stops again, runs back, picks up his boot, runs to rejoin
Vladimir. Huddled together, shoulders hunched, cringing away