In period between 1956 and Samuel Beckett wrote six radio plays, excluding his English adaptation ofRobert Pinget's La Manivelle (1959) as The Old Tune (1960). Four of them - All That Fall, Embers, Words and Music, and - were published shortly after completion. The two remaining pieces did not appear until much later, as sketches, entitled Esquisse radiophonique and Pochade radiophonique. Esquisse was to be published, in Minuit 5 (September 1973), soon followed by Pochade, in Minuit 16 (November 1975). Beckett seemed unable to remember their exact dates of composition at time, guessing vers 1962-63? for Esquisse (1973, 35) and annees 60? for Pochade (1975, 12). In fact, manuscript of Esquisse records two dates, 29 and 30 November 1961, situating its genesis roughly one week after Words and Music and one day before Cascando. Unfortunately, no holograph has been located for Pochade and two surviving typescripts show no dates. Owing to this lack of material traces, Beckett's guess has become accepted.Early 1960s DatingAll English publications of Pochade - as (Rough for) Radio II - have followed Beckett's early 1960s estimate, yet always dropping crucial question mark of French versions that underscores its uncertainty. While French editions have always left open possibility of an earlier date, English editions gradually abandoned it. As a result, few critics who have tried to refine Pochade's date of composition have concentrated exclusively on this period. Only Carola Veit (182) and Elissa Guralnick (202) propose 1960. At other end of spectrum we have two of Pochade's earliest commentators, Richard Admussen (73) and John Fletcher (166), who both suggested ca. 1962. They do not state their reasons for this dating but probably follow sequence implied by numbers in English titles of pieces - (Rough for) Radio I and II - as many critics later have. This is questionable, however, as Beckett did not number scripts until their publication in 1970s, more than ten years after they were written. In one of most recent monographs on subject, Kevin Branigan still considers Pochade as final radio work, or rather the end-point of Beckett's engagement in radio drama (129).The majority of critics, however, have opted for a middle ground, canonized by Ruby Cohn in her reference guide to Beckett's complete work. She appends play to 1961, while admitting in a footnote that [t]he date of Pochade radiophonique is problematic (274).Mauthner and January 1961Discouraging as this outlook may seem, it has not deterred John Pilling from rising to challenge. Although his guess was either late in 1961 [...] or early in 1962 (2006a, 158), he made a more refined proposition in his Samuel Beckett Chronology. In fact, he is only critic to trace origin of Pochade back to a specific month or event in Beckett's life. As Pilling notes, shortly after moving from his old apartment to boulevard Saint-Jacques in January 1961, Beckett mentioned Austro-Hungarian philosopher and language skeptic Fritz Mauthner to Anne Atik, wife of artist Avigdor Arikha. Since Beckett also uses Mauthner's name in Pochade - only time in his entire oeuvre - Pilling suspects he may have been working on text in January 1961, so that the second of radio sketches (as numbered in their English versions) may have predated first (2006b, 153). Everett Frost adopted Pilling's alternate dating for new Faber edition of Beckett's work for radio and screen: begun January 1961(?), thus perhaps preceding for Radio Γ (qtd. in Beckett 2009a, 175). With this question mark necessary caution of Minuit journal and book publications of Pochade has returned to attempts at dating radio script. That Pilling made a persuasive case is proven by Ulrika Maude's recent statement that Rough for Radio II was in fact written between Words and Music and Cascando (190). …