Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for Godot, who never arrives. Godot's absence, as well as many other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. Voted "the most significant English language play of the 20th century" , Waiting for Godot is Beckett’s translation of his own original French version, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only), "a tragicomedy in two acts". The original French text was written "between 9th October 1948 and 29th January 1949 … after Molloy and Malone Meurt but before L’Innommable."

irst lines] tragon: [struggles to remove his boot and fails] Nothing to be done. adimir: I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. [to Estragon] So there you are again. tragon: Am I? adimir: I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever. tragon: Me too. adimir: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? Get up till I embrace you. tragon: Not now, not now. adimir: May one inquire where His Highness spent the night? tragon: In a ditch. adimir: A ditch! Where? tragon: Over there. adimir: And they didn't beat you? tragon: Beat me? Certainly they beat me. adimir: The same lot as usual? tragon: The same? I don't know. adimir: When I think of it all these years but for me... where would you be? You'd be nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute, no doubt about it. tragon: And what of it? adimir: It's too much for one man.

tragon: We're all born mad. Some remain so.

adimir: Don't go yet. zzo: I'm going. adimir: What do you do when you fall far from help? zzo: We wait till we can get up. Then we go on. On! adimir: Before you go tell him to sing. zzo: Who? adimir: Lucky. zzo: To sing? adimir: Yes. Or to think. Or to recite. zzo: But he is dumb. adimir: Dumb! zzo: Dumb. He can't even groan. adimir: Dumb! Since when? zzo: Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.

tragon: Didi? adimir: Yes. tragon: I can't go on like this. adimir: That's what you think. tragon: If we parted? It might be better for us. adimir: We'll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless Godot comes. tragon: And if he comes? adimir: We'll be saved.

ast lines] adimir: Well? Shall we go? tragon: Yes, let's go. hey do not move]