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was killing him, and his shoulder blades were hurting. There is a fine line here
between burlesque and sarcasm: although technically both objects serve as
means of execution, the interchangeability is not particularly complimentary
to the cross. Still, the cross is present. It is in the centre throughout the
fragment, the largest part of the set, visually dominating the entire stage,
whether it is erected or lowered.
In Avant Fin de partie, another undated, early manuscript of Fin de
partie, the Holy Bible is a highlighted stage prop. The dramatic fragment is
a dialogue between X, the master, and F, his factotum. X, pre-Hamm, has
a strong connection with the Bible. He asks for it four times, and he throws
it on the floor four times. At a dramaturgically elevated moment of the play,
X asks F, his servant, to fetch the Bible and the syringe. In X’s world, the
practice of numbing pain with an injection and the Bible usually go together.
Keeping an account of his belongings, X lists them both as two of his five
precious possessions: “Cinq choses, voilà que j’ai cinq choses 4 present. [...]
Un tambour. (Silence) Une baguette. (Silence) Une seringue. (Silence. Plus
bas) Une seringue. (Silence) Une cuiller. (Silence) A soupe. (Silence) Et enfin...
enfin... [...]... ah... la parole de Dieu.” 1°
X quite openly seeks succour from this stage property, and luckily for
him, substances are still available, as opposed to Endgame, in which supplies
are running out, the painkiller in particular. So X can give free rein to his
imagination. When F brings him the syringe, but it is empty, X orders him to
fill it quickly. To F’s question, “With what?”, he gives the following reply.
X De morphine. De cocaine. De hachich. De cyanure. [...] (Il caresse
la bible, en tourne les pages) Si on n’a pas la foi on est foutu. (Un temps)
Et si on la on est baise. (Il jette la bible) Sale opium, va!!!
In addition to the apparent humour, there is more to this playful passage
than meets the eye. Beckett connects the syringe with the Bible on a physical
as well as a metaphorical level. By likening the Bible to a psychoactive drug
(ironically, opium of all substances), he evokes Marx’s imperishable views on
religion: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of
10
Samuel Beckett, Avant Fin de partie. Undated, unpublished typescript. Beckett Manuscript
Collection, University of Reading, MS 1227/7/16/7, 12. “Five things, that’s what I’ve got, five
things these days. [...] A drum. (Silence) A drum-stick. (Silence) A syringe. (Silence. More
quietly) A syringe. (Silence) A spoon. (Silence) A soup-spoon, that is. (Silence) And last of
all... last ofall... [...] ah... the word of God.” English translation: Bernard Adams
1 Tbid., 8. Quoted in Stanley E. Gontarski, The Intent of Undoing in Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic
Texts, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1985, 37. “Morphine. Cocaine. Hashish.
Cyanide. [...] (He strokes the bible, turns the pages.) If you've no faith you're fucked. (Pause)
And if you have you’re shagged. (He throws the bible away) Filthy opium, go away!” English
translation: Bernard Adams
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