The Crucible Act II: Scene 2

HATHORNE: Now, Martha Corey, there is abundant evidence in our hands to show that you have given yourself to the reading of fortunes.

I scorn it!

DANFORTH: Remove that man, Marshal!

Are you gone daft, Corey?

PARRIS: Giles Corey, sir, and a more contentious…

It is my wife you be condemning now.

DANFORTH: And how do you imagine to help her cause with such contemptuous riot?

DANFORTH: And how do you imagine to help her cause with such contemptuous riot?

DANFORTH: Then let him submit his evidence in proper affidavit.

NURSE: (With deference but emphasis.)

NURSE: (With deference but emphasis.)

She has signed a deposition, sir….

It were pretense, sir.

DANFORTH: I take it you came here to declare this revelation in the open court before the public?

DANFORTH: There lurks nowhere in your heart, nor hidden in your spirit, any desire to undermine this court?

DANFORTH: (Glancing at long list.)

She’s not hearty, I see.

If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property—that’s law!

I stand mute.

DANFORTH: (To Corey, in friendly tone, but a little impatient.)

But if he hides in anonymity I must know why.

There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country….

Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!

Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!

Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!

I’ll have no effrontery here.

You saw her scream, she howled, she swore familiar spirits choked her; she even testified that Satan, in the form of women now in jail, tried to win her soul away, and then when she refused…

DANFORTH: I will tell you this—you are either lying now, or you were lying in the court, and in either case you have committed perjury and you will go to jail for it.

In which she swears that she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil.

In which she swears that she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil.

He charges contemplation of murder.

HATHORNE: You say you never saw no spirits, Mary, were never threatened or afflicted by any manifest of the Devil or the Devil’s agents?

I bid you now search your heart, and tell me this—and beware of it, child, to God every soul is precious and His vengeance is terrible on them that take life without cause.

Is it possible, child, that the spirits you have seen are illusion only, some deception that may cross your mind when…

Let you beware, Mister Danforth—think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits?!—beware of it!

And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir….

No one in this room is to speak one word, or raise a gesture ay or nay.

Were she slovenly?

To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?

HALE: (He cries out in anguish.)

(She is transfixed—with all the girls, in complete silence, she is open-mouthed, agape at ceiling, and in great fear.)

(She is transfixed—with all the girls, in complete silence, she is open-mouthed, agape at ceiling, and in great fear.)

ABIGAIL: (As though hypnotized, mimicking the exact tone of Mary’s cry.)

MARY: (To all girls, frantically.)

(Mary utters something unintelligible, staring at Abigail who keeps watching the “bird” above.)

Abigail dashes across the stage as though pursued, the other girls streak hysterically in and out between the men, all converging.—and as their screaming subsides only Mary Warren’s is left.

HALE: (Crossing D.L.) I denounce these proceedings!