Editing Come and Go (section)

=== ''[[Disjecta (Beckett essay)#Part IV: Human Wishes|Human Wishes]]'' ===
In 1936 Beckett began a full-length play entitled ''[[Disjecta (Beckett)#Part IV: Human Wishes|Human Wishes]]'' (after the poem by [[Samuel Johnson|Dr Johnson]], ''Vanity of Human Wishes''). It was abandoned but in 1980 he allowed a fragment of this is to be published in [[Ruby Cohn]]'s ''Just Play'' and was later made more widely available in ''[[Disjecta (Beckett)|Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment]]'' edited by [[Ruby Cohn|Cohn]].

"When the curtain rises, three women are seated, presumably encircled by the long gowns of the time [18th Century]. Mrs Williams is [[Meditation|meditating]], Mrs Desmoulins is [[knitting]] and Miss Carmichael is reading. During the course of the scene the latter two rise and temporarily leave their seats, but Mrs Williams's actions are confined to striking the floor with her stick."<ref>Cohn, R., ‘The Femme Fatale on Beckett's Stage’ in ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'', p 163</ref>

Beckett may have been "motivated by the theme he clearly wishes to pursue: [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]] in love"<ref>Ben-Zvi, L., ‘Biographical, Textual and Historical Origins’ in Oppenheim, L., (Ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004), p 141</ref> but that is not what he ended up writing about. "The "three women look as though they might have emerged from [[tragedy]]. Their [[dialogue]] – especially Mrs Williams's lines – occasionally recalls [[Restoration comedy]], but its substratum is human mortality, without hope of restoration. [On the other hand r]ather than … explicit references to death, ''Come and Go'' spirals delicately around absence and threat."<ref>Cohn, R., ‘The Femme Fatale on Beckett's Stage’ in ''Women in Beckett: Performance and Critical Perspectives'', pp 163,164</ref> "However, more than death, it is ‘the peevishness of decay’<ref>Cohn, R., Ed. ‘Human Wishes’ in ''Just Play'' (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980), p 295-305</ref> that pervades the scene, illustrated by the petty bickering and punctuated by the repeated silences that threaten to stop what action there is."<ref>Ben-Zvi, L., Biographical, Textual and Historical Origins in Oppenheim, L., (Ed.) ''Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies'' (London: Palgrave, 2004), p 145</ref> "The play fragment also points forward … to the elegant, old-fashioned language and formalised syntax of the three women in ''Come and Go''."<ref>Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p 271</ref>