Error in Watt, as in human nature, is deeply rooted, and its identification, let alone its extirpation, is not straightforward. Here are several such instances:
(a) Following his encounter with the porter in Part I, Watt’s hat is knocked to the ground, but returned to him by the newsagent, Evans, causing Watt to wonder: ‘Was it possible that this was his hat.’ Calder and the Grove Centenary edition add a question mark, but since none is present in the galleys and many other such instances lack demarcation, there seems no reason to do so.
(b) Arsene, towards the end of his ‘short statement’, uses the phrase ‘heighth, breadth and width’; later editions have changed the first word to the more familiar ‘height’, thereby negating the small jest implicit in the use of the archaic form. There is no compelling justification for this change.
(c) The members of the Lynch clan are legion, but there is only a single mention of ‘Frank’, persisting in all editions including the French translation. The drafts and galleys indicate that Beckett had decided to change ‘Frank’ to ‘Jack’ but overlooked this one instance, a change which has been made in the present edition.
(d) In the exposition of cube roots (the art of the con), Louit puts to Mr Nackybal the figure ‘Four hundred and eight thousand one hundred and eighty-four’, which fails to elicit an answer from the mathematical prodigy. Is this because (as later) there is no simple cube root of this number? Probably not, because the working in Notebook 4 indicates that Beckett, in arriving at this figure by cubing seventy-four, made a simple arithmetical error, the correct figure being 405,224. Should this be corrected (in the French translation, for reasons of euphony, the cube of seventy-six, rendered correctly, is preferred), and if so, how? I have elected to leave the mistake unchanged, but the example illustrates the extent to which error in Watt is deeply rooted.
Spelling is another source of ambiguity. Again, if there is a compelling reason for an anomaly, it has been left untouched, hence the persistence of such words as ‘palissade’, ‘hasardous’ and ‘morcel’, where the French force is arguably present and little is gained (but perhaps something lost) by anglicisation. However, forms such as ‘accomodated’ and ‘occured’ are assuredly erroneous, and have been emended accordingly. More equivocal is the co-existence of ‘recognize’ and ‘recognise’, or ‘reflection’ and ‘reflexion’, which Beckett uses somewhat randomly, although he mostly favours the second. As little seems to be gained by standardisation, I have chosen to retain the forms present in the Olympia and Grove texts, which invariably follow those of the galleys, which presumably follow those of the missing typescript (for the drafts reflect the same inconsistencies), and which are often thus in the notebooks.
More problematical is the issue of punctuation. Calder’s enthusiasm for the hyphen, for instance, does not distinguish between one conceptual unit (‘seashore’), two conceptual units (‘sea shore’) and the littoral significance of the hyphenated form (sea-shore’). Nor does Calder’s use of commas, apostrophes and dashes altogether reflect the subtlety of Beckett’s practice, where the games played with such literals reflect what Mr (not ‘Mr.’) Hackett might call the ‘frigid machinery of a time-space relation’: that is, the Kantian categories by which the mind makes sense of its universe as mediated by what might be called the orthographical suprasegmentals. The principle in editing such details is, again, conservative, but since all editions of Watt are haphazard in these respects, I have been the more willing to modify the Grove template when tolerably sure that the pattern demands it. Thus the practice of Olympia and Grove varies with respect to the dash, which may indicate an interruption (often, though not always, hard against the word: interr—), or it may indicate a pause (often – though not always – separated by spaces from the adjacent words). Rightly or wrongly, I have elected to observe this distinction, and to vary the usage accordingly (but in these terms, consistently).
There is, of course, an argument to be made that the post-publication history of the text is equally part of the process, and must be respected. But a reader’s text must make decisions that can be justified on pragmatic grounds. This is not to deny that an author’s changes of intent are of interest, for Beckett’s annotation of his Calder Jupiter text for the French translation offers many examples of how the text had evolved in his estimation (this copy, and all the manuscripts concerning the translation, are in the Special Collections at Ohio State University, Columbus). To be sure, many of the deletions that Beckett proposed respond to the pressure of a different language (reference to a ‘stone’ as a unit of weight, for instance), but others, such as the wholesale deletion of songs, verses and some of the Addenda, are harder to justify. The French text draws attention to some anomalies that had persisted in all English editions (until the Grove Centenary text of 2006, that is). For example, when Mr Knott towards the end of Part III, moves mysteriously amid his furniture, all English versions (including the notebooks and galleys) record ‘nineteen’ such moves, when there are clearly twenty, as the French translation notes (‘vingt’). More absurdly, all early English editions record that Mr Knott rotates in his circular bed ‘in nightly displacements of almost one minute’, thereby completing in twelve months the circuit of his solitary couch: 360 ‘minutes’ translate to but a tiny portion of that circuit; the correct word is obviously ‘degrees’, as the French translation indicates. Like ‘nineteen’, this seems to have been an inadvertency rather than a provocation, and the Grove Centenary edition (2006) emends accordingly; but the pervasive presence of intentional error throughout the text demands more compelling (and, preferably, earlier) evidence to warrant the change.
The final edition to be considered is the Grove Press Centenary Edition, by far the most accurate text of Watt currently available, and one that tidies up most of the incongruities and obvious errors. This comes at a cost, for the adoption of a standard house style has led to a smoothing of small anomalies and the occasional obscuring of minor subtleties. I would contend, finally, that it is not based on manuscript evidence and principles of the kind that I have invoked, even if the choice between alternative readings is often difficult. What is needed, still, is a critical edition of Watt, one that does justice to its textual variants and evolutionary history by recording the alternatives so that their relative weightings may be debated. Like Watt, we may never learn what happened to Arsene’s Indian Runner duck, nor what Watt has finally understood of Mr Knott; but the accuracy of the new Faber text may encourage more readers to relish this curious comic masterpiece.
Table of Dates
[Note: where unspecified, translations from French to English or vice versa are by Beckett]
1906
13 April Samuel Beckett [Samuel Barclay Beckett] born at ‘Cooldrinagh’, a house in Foxrock, a village south of Dublin, on Good Friday, the second child of William Beckett and May Beckett, née Roe; he is preceded by a brother, Frank Edward, born 26 July 1902.
1911
Enters kindergarten at Ida and Pauline Elsner’s private academy in Leopardstown.
1915
Attends larger Earlsfort House School in Dublin.
1920
Follows Frank to Portora Royal, a distinguished Protestant boarding school in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh (soon to become part of Northern Ireland).
1923
October Enrolls at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) to study for an Arts degree.
1926
August First visit to France, a month-long cycling tour of the Loire Valley.
1927
April–August Travels through Florence and Venice, visiting museums, galleries, and churches.
December Receives B.A. in Modern Languages (French and Italian) and graduates first in the First Class.
1928
Jan.–June Teaches French and English at Campbell College, Belfast.
September First trip to Germany to visit seventeen-year-old Peggy Sinclair, a cousin on his father’s side, and her family in Kassel.
1 Nov
ember Arrives in Paris as an exchange lecteur at the École Normale Supérieure. Quickly becomes friends with his predecessor, Thomas MacGreevy, who introduces Beckett to James Joyce and other influential Anglophone writers and publishers.
December Spends Christmas in Kassel (as also in 1929, 1930, and 1931).
1929
June Publishes first critical essay (‘Dante … Bruno. Vico . . Joyce’) and first story (‘Assumption’) in transition magazine.
1930
July Whoroscope (Paris: Hours Press).
October Returns to TCD to begin a two-year appointment as lecturer in French.
November Introduced by MacGreevy to the painter and writer Jack B.Yeats in Dublin.
1931
March Proust (London: Chatto and Windus).
September First Irish publication, the poem ‘Alba’ in Dublin Magazine.
1932
January Resigns his lectureship via telegram from Kassel and moves to Paris.
Feb.–June First serious attempt at a novel, the posthumously published Dream of Fair to Middling Women.
December Story ‘Dante and the Lobster’ appears in This Quarter (Paris).
1933
3 May Death of Peggy Sinclair from tuberculosis.
26 June Death of William Beckett from a heart attack.
1934
January Moves to London and begins psychoanalysis with Wilfred Bion at the Tavistock Clinic.
February Negro Anthology, edited by Nancy Cunard and with numerous translations by Beckett (London: Wishart and Company).
May More Pricks Than Kicks (London: Chatto and Windus).
Aug.–Sept. Contributes several stories and reviews to literary magazines in London and Dublin.
1935
November Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates, a cycle of thirteen poems (Paris: Europa Press).
1936
Returns to Dublin.
29 September Leaves Ireland for a seven-month stay in Germany.
1937
Apr.–Aug. First serious attempt at a play, Human Wishes, about Samuel Johnson and his circle.
October Settles in Paris.
1938
6/7 January Stabbed by a street pimp in Montparnasse. Among his visitors at L’Hôpital Broussais is Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, an acquaintance who is to become Beckett’s companion for life.
March Murphy (London: Routledge).
April Begins writing poetry directly in French.
1939
3 September Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. Beckett abruptly ends a visit to Ireland and returns to Paris the next day.
1940
June Travels south with Suzanne following the Fall of France, as part of the exodus from the capital.
September Returns to Paris.
1941
13 January Death of James Joyce in Zurich.
1 September Joins the Resistance cell Gloria SMH.
1942
16 August Goes into hiding with Suzanne after the arrest of close friend Alfred Péron.
6 October Arrival at Roussillon, a small unoccupied village in Vichy France.
1944
24 August Liberation of Paris.
1945
30 March Awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Aug.–Dec. Volunteers as a storekeeper and interpreter with the Irish Red Cross in St-Lô, Normandy.
1946
July Publishes first fiction in French – a truncated version of the short story ‘Suite’ (later to become ‘La Fin’) in Les Temps modernes, owing to a misunderstanding with editors – as well as a critical essay on Dutch painters Geer and Bram van Velde in Cahiers d’art.
1947
Jan.–Feb. Writes first play, in French, Eleutheria (published posthumously).
April Murphy translated into French (Paris: Bordas).
1948
Undertakes a number of translations commissioned by UNESCO and by Georges Duthuit.
1950
25 August Death of May Beckett.
1951
March Molloy, in French (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit).
November Malone meurt (Paris: Minuit).
1952
Purchases land at Ussy-sur-Marne, subsequently Beckett’s preferred location for writing.
September En attendant Godot (Paris: Minuit).
1953
5 January Premiere of Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone in Montparnasse, directed by Roger Blin.
May L’Innommable (Paris: Minuit).
August Watt, in English (Paris: Olympia Press).
1954
8 September Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press).
13 September Death of Frank Beckett from lung cancer.
1955
March Molloy, translated into English with Patrick Bowles (New York: Grove; Paris: Olympia).
3 August First English production of Godot opens in London at the Arts Theatre.
November Nouvelles et Textes pour rien (Paris: Minuit).
1956
3 January American Godot premiere in Miami.
February First British publication of Waiting for Godot (London: Faber).
October Malone Dies (New York: Grove).
1957
January First radio broadcast, All That Fall on the BBC Third Programme.
Fin de partie, suivi de Acte sans paroles (Paris: Minuit).
28 March Death of Jack B.Yeats.
August All That Fall (London: Faber).
October Tous ceux qui tombent, translation of All That Fall with Robert Pinget (Paris: Minuit).
1958
April Endgame, translation of Fin de partie (London: Faber).
From an Abandoned Work (London: Faber).
July Krapp’s Last Tape in Grove Press’s literary magazine, Evergreen Review.
September The Unnamable (New York: Grove).
December Anthology of Mexican Poetry, translated by Beckett (Bloomington: Indiana University Press; later reprinted in London by Thames and Hudson).
1959
March La Dernière bande, translation of Krapp’s Last Tape with Pierre Leyris, in the Parisian literary magazine Les Lettres nouvelles.
2 July Receives honorary D.Litt. degree from Trinity College, Dublin.
November Embers in Evergreen Review.
December Cendres, translation of Embers with Pinget, in Les Lettres nouvelles.
Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (New York: Grove; Paris: Olympia Press).
1961
January Comment c’est (Paris: Minuit).
24 March Marries Suzanne at Folkestone, Kent.
May Shares Prix International des Editeurs with Jorge Luis Borges.
August Poems in English (London: Calder).
September Happy Days (New York: Grove).
1963
February Oh les beaux jours, translation of Happy Days (Paris: Minuit).
May Assists with the German production of Play (Spiel, translated by Elmar and Erika Tophoven) in Ulm.
22 May Outline of Film sent to Grove Press. Film would be produced in 1964, starring Buster Keaton, and released at the Venice Film Festival the following year.
1964
March Play and Two Short Pieces for Radio (London: Faber).
April How It Is, translation of Comment c’est (London: Calder; New York: Grove).
June Comédie, translation of Play, in Les Lettres nouvelles.
July–Aug. First and only trip to the United States, to assist with the production of Film in New York.
1965
October Imagination morte imaginez (Paris: Minuit).
November Imagination Dead Imagine (London: The Sunday Times, Calder).
1966
January Comédie et Actes divers, including Dis Joe and Va et vient (Paris: Minuit).
February Assez (Paris: Minuit).
October Bing (Paris: Minuit).
1967
February D’un ouvrage abandonné (Paris: Minuit). Têtes-morte
s (Paris: Minuit).
16 March Death of Thomas MacGreevy.
June Eh Joe and Other Writings, including Act Without Words II and Film (London: Faber).
July Come and Go, English translation of Va et vient (London: Calder).
26 September Directs first solo production, Endspiel (translation of Endgame by Elmar Tophoven) in Berlin.
November No’s Knife: Collected Shorter Prose 1945–1966 (London: Calder).
December Stories and Texts for Nothing, illustrated with six ink line drawings by Avigdor Arikha (New York: Grove).
1968
March Poèmes (Paris: Minuit).
December Watt, translated into French with Ludovic and Agnès Janvier (Paris: Minuit).
1969
23 October Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sans (Paris: Minuit).
1970
April Mercier et Camier (Paris: Minuit).
Premier amour (Paris: Minuit).
July Lessness, translation of Sans (London: Calder).
September Le Dépeupleur (Paris: Minuit).
1972
January The Lost Ones, translation of Le Dépeupleur (London: Calder; New York: Grove). The North, part of The Lost Ones, illustrated with etchings by Arikha (London: Enitharmon Press).
1973
January Not I (London: Faber).
Autumn First Love (London: Calder).
1974
Mercier and Camier (London: Calder).