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Intervento
tenuto da Antonio Borriello al “Beckett in Berlin 2000 Symposium”, Humboldt
Universität zu Berlin, 20-27 settembre 2000, pubblicato in Angela
Moorjani and Carola Veit, eds., Samuel Beckett: Endlessness in yhe Year 2000
/ Samuel Beckett: Fin sans fin en l’an 2000. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi By Editions - “Samuel Beckett Today/Aujord’hui
(An annual bilingual Review),” No. 11, 2001, sezione IX, Mathematical/Mystical/Esoteric
Musings, pp. 391-398.
Antonio Borriello
Torre
del Greco, Napoli, Italy
NUMERICAL
REFERENCES
IN
KRAPP’S
LAST
TAPE
Antonio
Borriello will give an extraordinary and amusing insight into Beckett’s Krapp’s
Last Tape by means of concrete objects and performances in order to disclose
the secret associations between Numbers and Words.
In
the Preface to his book Samuel Beckett, «Krapp’s Last Tape»: dalla Pagina
alla Messinscena, Mr Biagio Scognamiglio has written:
«
From now onwards one cannot help but take into due account the superb analysis
of the Numerical References carried out by Antonio Borriello. The
analogies between mathematics and the human soul which he outlines had already
been suggested by Plato, whose spirit seemingly vibrates into Dylan Thomas’s
inspired words: There are your years’ recorders. The circular world stand
still ». Words, that show an unforeseen kinship with Krapp, who while listening
to the tapes thinks that « the Earth might be uninhabited ». With reference to
this point I would like to quote a passage from Plato’s Republic: « There
exists for the divine progeny a period covered by a perfect number, while for
the human offspring there must be another one wherein the progressions of roots
and power of numbers [...] give out a proportional and rational result. The
whole geometrical number is endowed with the power to rule the best and worst
generations of mankind ». In such a sense Samuel Beckett as a playwright and a
director is indeed – as suggested by Antonio Borriello with a suitable
quotation from Virgil’s words – a god enjoying himself with numbers, as if
he had inside his brain a secret architectural design by which he could turn the
painful disorder of chaos into the joy of the world, namely
of that « flower - bed
that makes ferocious», that « dark grain of sand named Earth », that
« dark atom of evil ». « The Earth might be uninhabited ».
* *
*
Numerical
References in
Krapp’s Last Tape
« numero deus impare gaudet »
PUBLIO
VIRGILIO
MARONE)
« I always loved arithmetic it
has paid me back in full »
(SAMUEL
BECKETT)
Numbers
occur quite often in Beckett’s works. Our aim is to analyse the ones in Krapp’s
Last Tape 1. Even in the detailed introduction we find numerical
references, both spatial and temporal. First of all, we have to specify that the
action develops substantially in 3 temporal dimensions:
1)
Krapp at 69 years of age;
2)
Krapp at 39 years of age;
3)
Krapp at 27 or 29 years of age;
even if Romana Rutelli
examines and distinguishes the aforesaid temporal levels ( « though in their
complex entan- glement » 2) in 5 steps. Let’s sum them up:
1)
Time of the discourse. It concerns Krapp on stage;
2)
Time of the plot. It involves the present and the past plus a third
temporal axis narrated by a 39 aged Krapp – which relates to the 27 or 29 aged
Krapp. The view is done. It
contains and represents the 3 human being ages (youth, maturity and old age); it
seems as if we were (if I’m allowed in comparing) before the mysterious and
enigmatic Three Ages or the Three Philosophers by Giorgione 3;
3)
Time of the fabula. It is the time of the chronological narration that
begins at 27 or 29 aged Krapp up to the present
69 years old Krapp;
4)
Time of the antecedent. Mrs Rutelli states about the antecedent: « It
is a part of the fabula - and of the plot as well - but it is external to
the action traditionally conceived. It concerns all that happened in Krapp’s
life before the action began » 4;
5)
Historical Time: Future, Present, Past time. In short, « The time to be defined both for Krapp and the spectator » 5,
as Rutelli still observes. And I would add that the time is to be defined not
for Krapp and the Spectator only, but above all for the actor.
1.
« A late evening in the future. KRAPP’s den. Front centre a small
table, the two drawers of which open towards the audience. [...]. Surprising
pair of dirty white boots, size ten at
least, very narrow and pointed. [...]. Table and immediately adjacent area in a
strong while light. Rest of stage in darkness » (K., p. 9).
1.
1
The
author specifies and designs geometrically, both horizontally and vertically,
the stage space: a foreground and the centre of the scene. Such geometry is
aimed by « The Strong White Light » (K., p. 9).
The
size of the boots (« ten »), boots in a real dandy style, is in the French,
German and Spanish translations number 48 (a multiple of 3).
1.
2
First
series of gags: Krapp (from his motionless stand to action
and back to the motionless
stand) completes 33 operations using
9 objects (33 and 9 are multiples of 3): 1
Watch, 1 Envelope,
1 Bunch of Keys, 1 Reel
of Tape, 2
Bananas, 1 Skin
of
Banana, 1
Bottle (« pop of cork » ), 1 Ledger (K., pp. 9-10).
1.
3
Besides,
we can see 3 different kinds of spotted white:
1)
« Grimy White Shirt » (K., p. 9);
2)
« Dirty White Boots » (K., p. 9);
3)
« White Face, Purple Nose » (K., p. 9);
and
3 sheer whites ... :
1)
« White Light » (K., p. 9);
2) « Young Beauty [...], all White and
Starch » (K., p. 14);
3) « White Dog » (K., p. 15);
More
exactly, we have one more white or, we’d better say, Bianca, the
Italian name
of the girl
with « incomparable
Eyes »
(K.
pp. 12-13).
The black ball is re-named 3 times:
1)
« The Black Ball … » (K., p. 11);
2)
« Black Ball? » (K., p. 11);
3) « A Small, Old, Black, Hard, Solid Rubber Ball » (K., p. 15).
In the text we find 9
different colours:
1) White (White Face, K., p. 9);
2)
Black (Black Hooded Perambulator, K., p. 15);
3)
Rusty (Rusty Black Waistcoat, K., p. 9);
4) Purple (Purple Nose, K., p. 9);
5)
Grey (Grey Hair, K., 9);
6)
Green (A Shabby Green Coat, K., p. 13);
7)
Dark (One Dark Young Beauty, K., p. 14);
8)
Brown; (The Blind Went Down, One Of Those
Dirty
Brown Roller Affairs, K., p. 15);
9) Red (Holly, The Red-Berried, K.,
p. 19).
It
is easy to see Beckett’s predilection for number 3 and
ts multiples, as
we have already noticed and we will see
afterwards.
It
is confirmed more times. Let’s read some of them (just 3, but we might as well
quote 33 of them) from other works: The Expelled:
«
I arrived therefore at three totally different figures, without ever knowing
which of them was right. And when I say that the figure has gone from my mind, I
mean that none of the three
figures is with me any more, my mind. It is true that if were to find, in my
mind, where it is certainly to be found, one of these figures, I would find it
alone, without being able deduce from it the other two. And even were I to
recover two, I would not know the third. No, I would have to find all three, in
my mind, in order to know three » 6;
from
Endgame: Clov, reminding Macbeth’s 3 witches’ jingle
( « Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up
nine » 7) He says: « I’ll go now to my kitchen, ten feet by ten
feet » 8 , obtaining …
3 cubic metres!
from
How It Is: « millions millions there are millions of there are three
[…] » 9.
Meanwhile, shortly, I remind what has been written
by the numerology expert John King about number 3:
«
It is the most sacred of the numbers in a wide
range of cultures. [...] Human
mind seems to operate an inborn relation between number 3 and the concept of
completeness. 3 means yesterday, today and tomorrow, that is past, present and
future. It means the positive, the comparative and the superlative. Moreover,
the beginning, the half and the end [...] the eternal cycle » 10.
If
we wanted to associate the number 3 attribution and correspondence of above to
Krapp and to his story they would reveal, no doubt at all, to be perfect.
2.
First
Pantomime
« KRAPP [...], unlocks first drawer [...], unlocks second
drawer [...], begins pacing to and from at edge of stage, in the light, not more
than four or five pages either way [...] » (K., p. 10).
The
pantomime finishes with Krapp disappearing in the background « goes backstage
into darkness. 10 seconds. Loud pop of cork. 15 seconds » (K., p. 10).
3.
The
monologue begins with Krapp:
«
[...] Box ... thrree ... spool ...
five. [...] Spool! (Pause.)
Spooool! [...] Box ... thrree ... thrree ... four ... two ... nine! ... seven ... [...] Box thrree. Spool ... five
... five ... five ... Spool five.
Box thrree, spool five. Spooool! [...] Memorable [...] Equinox, memorable
equinox [...] Memorable equinox? » (K., pp. 10-11).
3. 1
«
Box … nine »: all in all, the boxes are 9 (a multiple of 3). Forward on,
James Knowlson will disclose also the number of the reels contained within.
3.
2
After
the long series of numbers, there is reference to the equinox falling on 3/21
(21 is a multiple of 3) and on 9/23 (23 is not a multiple of 3, but September is
the ninth month of the year).
«
Memorable equinox » is repeated 3 times.
4.
The
TAPE begins this way:
« Thirty-nine today [...]. Have just eaten I regret to say three bananas
and only with difficulty refrained from a fourth » (K., pp. 11-12).
4.
1
39
is a multiple of 3; eaten bananas
are 3.
5.
TAPE:
« Old Miss McGlome always sings [...]. Shall I sing when I am her age, if I
ever am? No. (Pause.) Did I sing as a boy? No. (Pause.) Did I ever
sing? No. Pause » (K., p. 12).
5.
1
Krapp
asks himself 3 questions and answers them with 3 No’s broken by 3 Pauses.
6.
TAPE:
« Just been listening to an old year, passages at random. I did not check in
the book, but it must be at least ten or twelve years ago. [...] Hard to believe
I was ever that young whelp. The voice! Jesus! And the aspirations! [...] And
the resolutions! [...] To drink less, in particular. [...] Statistics. Seventeen
hundred hours, out of the preceding eight thousand odd, consumed on licensed
premises alone. More than 20 per cent, say 40 per cent of his waking life. [...]
» (K., pp. 12-13).
6.
1
Statistically
speaking, Krapp has drunk 6.300 hours less (8.000 – 1.700 = 3.600, a number
multiple of 3) than he did during the recording of 10 or 12 years before. So, he
was 29 or 27 years old (39 – 12 = 27, a number multiple of 3).
6.
2
Through
the whole text God’s
name is
uttered 3
times and Jesus name is uttered 4 times:
1)
« […] good God! » (K., 10);
2) « Sneers
at what he calls his youth
and thanks to God that it’s
over » (K., p. 13);
3) « Thanks God that’s all done with anyway » (K., p. 17).
1) « Well out of that, Jesus yes! » (K., p.12);
2) « The voice! Jesus! And the aspirations » (K., p. 13);
3) « Let that go! Jesus!
» (K., p. 18);
4)
« Take his mind off his homework! Jesus!
» (K., p. 18).
7.
Second
Pantomime
« KRAPP switches off, broods, looks at his watch, gets up,
goes backstage into darkness. Ten seconds. Pop of cork. Ten seconds. Second cork.
Ten seconds. Third cork » (K.,
p. 13).
7.
1
From
the backstage a crack is heard every 10 seconds (10 seconds are the sixth part
of a minute, and 6 is a multiple of 3). Totally, 3 are the pops of cork, 3 the
pauses, 3 the actions.
8.
TAPE: « -back on the year that is gone [...] mother lay a-dying,
in the
late autumn (K., p. 14). [...] Whenever I looked in her
direction she had
her eyes on me » (K., p. 15).
8. 1
With the end of the
year, 12 months have passed
(12 is a multiple of 3).
8.
2
The
mother dies in « the late autumn »: autumn is the third
season of the year.
8.
3
As
Pierre Chabert writes, « the tape
he listens to contains essentially 3 stories. [1] The story of his mother’s death, [2] his ‘vision’
in a night of March (we had better not underrate
darkness - Beckett’s strong biographical point -), [3] and a
heavenly boat trip on the lake, along with a woman, from whom he is going to
separate » 11.
8.
4
Six
are also Krapp’s memories of women:
1) Miss McGlome (K., p. 12);
2) Bianca (The Girl That The Shabby Green, K.,
pp.
12-13);
3) The Dark
Young Beauty (K., p. 14);
4) The Girl
On The Lake (K., p. 16);
5) Fanny
The Whore (K., p. 18);
6)
His Mother (K., 14).
In
no other drama by Beckett are there so many women.
8.
5
In
the text, 6 times (6 multiple of 3), he refers to eyes.
Krapp
remembers the eyes of a woman 4 times and describes
his own 2 (twice):
1)
« Sat before the fire with
closed eyes, separating the grain
from the husks » (K.,
pp. 11-12);
2)
« Scalded the eyes out of
me reading Effie again, a page a
day with tears again » (K.,
p. 18).
Knowlson
comments the line « The eyes! Like ...
(hesitates) ... chrysolite! » (K.,
p. 15) with these words:
« Krapp has always been obsessed by the eyes of the women he has known:
Bianca, the girl in the park, and the girl on the lake. This recalls the
metaphysical poets’ concern with eyes as an entry to the soul. The comparison
with chrysolite is a quotation from Othello, Act. V. Scene 2, 145 »
12.
Let’s
read the quotation detected by Knowlson. It stresses Othello’s anger in the
presence of Emilia:
«
Emil!. That she was false to wedlock?
Othel. Ay, with Cassio. Nay,
had she been true, if heaven would make me such another world of one entire and
perfect chrysolite, I’d not have sold her for it » 13.
In
my opinion,
since his
favourite reading
or « re-reading »,
as Assouline says, were « Dante, Hölderlin, Schopenhauer, Joyce,
Jules Renard’s
diary, some Baudelaire, Apollinaire, classics, The
Bible and some
dictionaries » 14, the quotation is from The
Bible,
a text constantly within the reach of Beckett the « quaker »:
«
The bases of the city’s wall are adorned with all sorts of precious stones:
the first of jasper, the second of sapphire, the third of chalcedony, the fourth
of emerald, the fifth of sardonic, the sixth of sardic, the seventh of
chrysolite » (Ap. 21, 19-21).
Besides,
the recalled scene which refers to the young Krapp sitting
in
front of the fire
with « the eyes closed, separating the wheat from
the husks », carries a
reference with The New Testament:
« He has a fan in his hand and
cleans with it his threshing-fool then he picks the wheat in the granary; but
the husks, he will burn them with an inextinguishable fire » (Mt. 3. 12;
Lc. 3. 17).
9.
TAPE:
« Her
moments, my
moments. (Pause.) The
dog’s moments » (K., p. 15).
9.
1
We
can count 3 moments. Moreover, the dog is an animal occurring in all Beckett’s
works. Dogs of every breed and of various colours, some of them even false and
with … 3 paws.
The
anonymous main-voice from The Image recites:
«
[...] on a fair day I’m able to name dogs belonging to four or five completely
different breeds [...] » 15.
Let’s
see some cues:
«
A small dog followed him […] an orange Pomeranian [...] » 16.
«
[...] the dog follows head sunk tail on balls [...] brief black and there we are
again on the summit the dog askew on its hunkers in the heather it lowers its
snout to its black and pink penis too tired to lick it
[...] brief black [...] out of sight first the dog then us the scene is
shut of us » 17.
In
Waiting for Godot Vladimir sings a macabre refrain:
«
A dog came in the kitchen
And
stole a crust of bread.
Then
cook up with a ladle
And
beat him till he was dead.
Then
all the dogs came running
And
dug the dog a tomb -
[...]
Then
all the dogs came running
And
dug the dog a tomb
And
wrote upon the tombstone
For
the eyes of dogs to come » 18.
(continua
in terza pagina)
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