HAMM:
Give me the dog.
CLOV (looking):
Quiet!
HAMM (angrily):
Give me the dog!
(Clov drops the telescope, clasps his hands to his head. Pause. He gets down precipitately, looks for the dog, sees it, picks it up, hastens towards Hamm and strikes him violently on the head with the dog.)
CLOV:
There’s your dog for you.
(The dog falls to the ground. Pause.)
HAMM:
He hit me!
CLOV:
You drive me mad, I’m mad!
HAMM:
If you must hit me, hit me with the axe.
(Pause.)
Or with the gaff, hit me with the gaff. Not with the dog. With the gaff. Or with the axe.
—from “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett
