Inscribed by Beckett on the title page to the daughter of actor Jack MacGowran. “For Tara / with love / from Sam / (nostrils removed)” Beckett presumably meant that he had scratched out the nostrils on the face on the front cover. Not I is a short monologue in which a disembodied female mouth (but not a nose) speaks from the stage in a frenzied rush. “I want the piece to work on the nerves of the audience,” wrote Beckett.