The Complete Dramatic Works (44 page)

HE:
[
With
music
and
voice.
] Miss … what? … [
Music
and
voice
silent.
] … a confinement? … [
Long
pause.
]
… two confinements? … [
Long
pause.
]
 
… one what? … what? … breech? … what? … [
Long
pause.
] … tomorrow noon? …

[
Long
pause.
Faint
ping
as
receiver
put
gently
down.
Long
pause.
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Brief,
failing.
]

[
Silence.
Long
pause.
]

HE:
[
Whisper.
]
Tomorrow … noon …

Written in French in the early 1960s. First published in English by Grove Press, New
York, in 1976. First broadcast under the title ‘Rough for Radio’ on BBC Radio 3 on
13 April 1976.

A:
Ready, miss?

S:
And waiting, sir.

A:
Fresh pad, spare pencils?

S:
The lot, sir.

A:
Good shape?

S:
Tiptop, sir.

A:
And you, Dick, on your toes? [
Swish
of
bull’s
pizzle.
 
Ad
miringly
.
]
Wow! Let’s hear it land. [
Swish
and
formidable
thud.
]
Good. Off with his hood. [
Pause.
]
Ravishing face, ravishing! Is it not, miss?

S:
Too true, sir. We know it by heart and yet the pang is ever new.

A:
The gag. [
Pause.
]
The blind. [
Pause.
]
The plugs. [
Pause.
] Good. [
He
thumps
on
his
desk
with
a
cylindrical
ruler.
] Fox, open your eyes, readjust them to the light of day and look about you. [
Pause.
]
You see, the same old team. I hope–

S:
[
Aflutter.
]
Oh!

A:
What is it, miss? Vermin in the lingerie?

S:
He smiled at me!

A:
Good omen. [
Faint
hope.
] Not the first time by any chance?

S:
Heavens no, sir, what an idea!

A:
[
Disappointed.
]
I might have known. [
Pause.
]
And yet it still affects you?

S:
Why yes, sir, it is so sudden! So radiant! So fleeting!

A:
You note it?

S:
Oh no, sir, the words alone. [
Pause.
]
Should one note the play of feature too?

A:
I don’t know, miss. Depending perhaps.

S:
Me you know–

A:
[
Trenchant.
]
Leave it for the moment. [
Thump
with
ruler.
] Fox, I hope you have had a refreshing night and will be better inspired today than
heretofore. Miss.

S:
Sir.

A:
Let us hear again the report on yesterday’s results, it has somewhat slipped my memory.

S:
[
Reading.
]
‘We the undersigned, assembled under–’

A:
Skip.

S:
[
Reading.
]
‘… note yet again with pain that these dicta–’

A:
Dicta! [
Pause.
]
Read on.

S:
‘…with pain that these dicta, like all those communicated to date and by reason of
the same deficiencies, are totally inacceptable. The second half in particular is
of such–’

A:
Skip.

S:
‘… outlook quite hopeless were it not for our conviction–’

A:
Skip. [
Pause.
]
Well?

S:
That is all, sir.

A:
… same deficiencies … totally inacceptable … outlook quite hopeless … [
Disgusted.
]
Well! [
Pause.
]
Well!

S:
That is all, sir. Unless I am to read the exhortations.

A:
Read them.

S:
‘… instantly renew our standing exhortations, namely:

1. Kindly to refrain from recording mere animal cries, they serve only to indispose
us.

2. Kindly to provide a strictly literal transcript, the meanest syllable has, or may
have, its importance.

3. Kindly to ensure full neutralization of the subject when not in session, especially
with regard to the gag, its
permanence
and good repair. Thus rigid enforcement of the
tube-feed
, be it per buccam or be it on the other hand per rectum, is
absolutely’–
one word underlined–‘essential. The least word let fall in solitude and thereby in
danger, as Mauthner has shown, of being no longer needed,
may
be
it’
–three words underlined.

‘4. Kindly–’

A:
Enough! [
Sickened.
]
Well! [
Pause.
] Well!

S:
It is past two, sir.

A:
[
Roused
from
his
prostration.
]
It is what?

S:
Past two, sir.

A:
[
Roughly.
]
Then what are you waiting for? [
Pause.
Gently.
] Forgive me, miss, forgive me, my cup is full. [
Pause.
] Forgive me!

S:
[
Coldly.
]
Shall I open with yesterday’s close?

A:
If you would be so good.

S:
[
Reading.
]
‘When I had done soaping the mole, thoroughly rinsing and drying before the embers,
what next only out again in the blizzard and put him back in his chamber with his
weight of grubs, at that instant his little heart was beating still I swear, ah my
God my God.’ [
She
strikes
with
her
pencil
on
her
desk.
]
‘My God.’

[
Pause.
]

A:
Unbelievable! And there he jibbed, if I remember aright.

S:
Yes, sir, he would say no more.

A:
Dick functioned?

S:
Let me see … Yes, twice.

[
Pause.
]

A:
Does not the glare incommode you, miss, what if we should let down the blind?

S:
Thank you, sir, not on my account, it can never be too warm, never too bright, for
me. But, with your permission, I shall shed my overall.

A:
[
With alacrity.
]
Please do, miss, please do. [
Pause.
] Staggering! Staggering! Ah were I but … forty years younger!

S:
[
Rereading.
]
‘Ah my God my God.’ [
Blow
with
pencil.
]
‘My God.’

A:
Crabbed youth! No pity! [
Thump
with
ruler.
]
Do you mark me? On! [
Silence.
]
Dick! [
Swish
and
thud
of pizzle
on
flesh.
Faint
cry
from
 
FOX
.] Off record, miss, remember?

S:
Drat it! Where’s that eraser?

A:
Erase, miss, erase, we’re in trouble enough already. [
Ruler.
] On! [
Silence.
]
Dick!

F:
Ah yes, that for sure, live I did, no denying, all stones all sides–

A:
One moment.

F:
–walls no further–

A:
[
Ruler.
]
Silence! Dick! [
Silence.
Musing
]
Live I did … [
Pause.
]
Has he used that turn before, miss?

S:
To what turn do you allude, sir?

A:
Live I did.

S:
Oh yes, sir, it’s a notion crops up now and then. Perhaps not in those precise terms,
so far, that I could not say
offhand. But allusions to a life, though not common, are not rare.

A:
His own life?

S:
Yes, sir, a life all his own.

A:
[
Disappointed.
]
I might have known. [
Pause.
]
What a memory–mine! [
Pause.
]
Have you read the Purgatory, miss, of the divine Florentine?

S:
Alas no, sir, I have merely flipped through the Inferno.

A:
[
Incredulous.
]
Not read the Purgatory?

S:
Alas no, sir.

A:
There all sigh, I was, I was. It’s like a knell. Strange, is it not?

S:
In what sense, sir?

A:
Why, one would rather have expected, I shall be. No?

S:
[
With
tender
condescension.
]
The creatures! [
Pause.
]
It is getting on for three, sir.

A:
[
Sigh.
]
Good. Where were we?

S:
‘… walls no further–’

A:
Before, that, miss, the house is not on fire.

S:
‘… live I did, no denying, all stones all sides’–inaudible –‘walls–’

A:
[
Ruler.
]
On! [
Silence.
]
Dick!

S:
Sir.

A:
[
Impatiently.
]
What is it, miss, can’t you see that old time is aflying?

S:
I was going to suggest a touch of kindness, sir, perhaps just a hint of kindness.

A:
So soon? And then? [
Firmly.
]
No, miss, I appreciate your sentiment. But I have my method. Shall I remind you of
it? [
Pause.
Pleading.
]
Don’t say no! [
Pause.
]
Oh you are an angel! You may sit, Dick. [
Pause.
]
In a word, REDUCE the pressure instead of increasing it. [
Lyrical.
]
Caress, fount of resipescence! [
Calmer.
]
Dick, if you would. [
Swish
and
thud
of pizzle
on
flesh.
Faint
cry
from
FOX
.] Careful, miss.

S:
Have no fear, sir.

A:
[
Ruler.
] … walls … walls what?

S:
‘no further’, sir.

A:
Right. [
Ruler.
]
…
walls no further … [
Ruler.
]
On! [
Silence.
] Dick!

F:
That for sure, no further, and there gaze, all the way up, all the way down, slow
gaze, age upon age, up again, down again, little lichens of my own span, living dead
in the stones, and there took to the tunnels. [
Silence.
Ruler.
] Oceans too, that too, no denying, I drew near down the tunnels, blue above, blue
ahead, that for sure, and there too, no further, ways end, all ends and farewell,
farewell and fall, farewell seasons, till I fare again. [
Silence.
Ruler.
] Farewell.

[
Silence.
Ruler.
Pause.
]

A:
Dick!

F:
That for sure, no denying, no further, down in Spring, up in Fall, or inverse, such
summers missed, such winters.

[
Pause.
]

A:
Nice! Nicely put! Such summers missed! So sibilant! Don’t you agree, miss?

A:
Hsst!

F:
–fatigue, what fatigue, my brother inside me, my old twin, ah to be he and he–but
no, no no. [
Pause.
]
No no. [
Silence.
Ruler.
]
Me get up, me go on, what a hope, it was he, for hunger. Have yourself opened, Maud
would say, opened up, it’s nothing, I’ll give him suck if he’s still alive, ah but
no, no no. [
Pause.
]
No no.

[
Silence.
]

A:
[
Discouraged.
]
Ah dear.

S:
He is weeping, sir, shall I note it?

A:
I really do not know what to advise, miss.

S:
Inasmuch as … how shall I say? … human trait … can one say in English?

A:
I have never come across it, miss, but no doubt.

F:
Scrabble scrabble–

A:
Silence! [
Pause.
]
No holding him!