Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande
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Transcribed by: Dirk Van Hulle
Holding Library: Harry Ransom Center (MS SB/4/2/2)
Abbreviated in the Manuscript Chronology as ET2
'Crapp's Last Tape'. Typed manuscript, signed, March 1958, 10 pp., 4to. With many
autograph corrections, annotations, and revisions in black and blue inks. This manuscript,
labeled by Beckett as 'Typescrypt II', reflects the changes he made in the first typescript
(some of which have been revised again) and is a major expansion of that version,
corresponding more recognizably to the published text. Introductory material relating
to the stage setting has been added, and the verso of page 1 has a long autograph
addition which incorporates stage directions concerning A's [Krapp's] movements. Whereas
the first typescript was untitled, here Beckett has written 'Crapp's Last Tape' at
the top of page 1. A mathematical calculation on the verso of the final page relates
to the passage: 'To drink less, in particular. And the resolutions! (Brief laugh of A alone). Statistics. Seventeen hundred hours, out of the preceding eight thousand off, consumed
on licensed premises alone. Over 20%'.
Lake, Carlton, ed. (1984), No Symbols Where None Intended: A Catalogue of Books, Manuscripts and Other Material
Relating to Samuel Beckett in the Collections of the Humanities Research Center (Austin: Humanities Research Center), p. 105
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt