How It Is
In later fiction, Beckett would sometimes refer to Dante's Belacqua. The title character of "Murphy" has a Belacqua fantasy. The narrator of "How It Is" describes one of his sleeping postures in terms of Belacqua. "Company"'s narrator refers to the ‘old lutist cause of Dante's first quarter-smile’ and wonders if the old lutist has made it to Paradise by now. At the beginning of "Molloy", the narrator, who is doing nothing but watching passers, likens himself to Belacqua or Sordello as he crouches to avoid being detected.