Arthur Miller's The Crucible

PROCTOR: (Taken aback.)

PARRIS: It is agreed, sir—it is agreed—we will abide by your judgment.

Abominations are done in the forest…
ABIGAIL: It were only sport, Uncle!

When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor… But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then… (Entranced as though it were a miracle.)

Adultery, John.

I think that in all justice you must …
DANFORTH: Then let him submit his evidence in proper affidavit.

Do you men also have afflicted children?

Do you men also have afflicted children?

PUTNAM: She cannot bear to hear the lord’s name, mister Hale; that’s a sure sign of witchcraft afloat.

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

PARRIS: It is agreed, sir—it is agreed—we will abide by your judgment.

Why, how does your child ail?

(Slight pause as Proctor watches Elizabeth pass him, then speaks, being aware of Elizabeth’s alarm.)

ELIZABETH: (Amazed at her strangeness.)

ELIZABETH: (Amazed at her strangeness.)

But if he hides in anonymity I must know why.

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

Is it true there be fourteen women arrested?

I’ll wait till Mister Hale arrives.

PROCTOR: (Astonished.)

PROCTOR: (Astonished.)

No man may longer doubt the powers of the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village.

MARY: (Hardly audible.)

DANFORTH: Children, a very auger bit will now be turned into your souls until your honesty is proved.

PUTNAM: Against him and all authority.

Being aware of their relationship.)

I think we ought rely on Doctor Griggs now, and good prayer…
ANN: Rebecca, the docter’s baffled.

HALE: How come it that only two are baptized?

Believe me, Sir, you never saw more hearty babies born.

Perhaps some bird, invisible to others, comes to you, perhaps a pig, or any beast at all.

Will you confess yourself befouled with hell, or do you keep that black allegiance yet?

Childishly befuddled.)

Childishly befuddled.)

DANFORTH: Now hear me, and beguile yourselves no more.

I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.

I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!

PARRIS: Beware this man, Your Excellency, this man is mischief.

My Ruth is bewildered, Rebecca, she cannot eat.

My Ruth is bewildered, Rebecca, she cannot eat.

Now she goes to court and claims that from that day to this he cannot keep a pig alive for more than four weeks because my Martha bewitch them with her books!

SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.

There is a murdering witch among us bound to keep herself in the dark.

PROCTOR: (Bitterly smiling.)

Let us rather blame ourselves and…
PUTNAM: How may we blame ourselves?

PARRIS: There is a party in this church; I am not blind; there is a faction and a party.

She cannot pass you in the church but you will blush…
PROCTOR: I may blush for my sin.

There is a murdering witch among us bound to keep herself in the dark.

They will not budge.

You people seem not to comprehend that a minister is the Lord’s man in the parish; a minister is not to be so lightly crossed and contradicted…
PUTNAM: Aye!
PARRIS: There is either obedience or the church will burn like hell is burning!

SUSANNA: Aye, sir, he have been searchin’ his books since he left you, sir, but he bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it.

PROCTOR: (As 3 or 4 persons off-stage begin a quiet chant—a psalm or hymn.)

We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly.

TITUBA: No—no, chicken blood, I give she chicken blood!

MARY: Mister Proctor, in open court she near choked us all to death.

Now she goes to court and claims that from that day to this he cannot keep a pig alive for more than four weeks because my Martha bewitch them with her books!

When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor… But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then… (Entranced as though it were a miracle.)

You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you’re twenty.

Look at them, Tituba-look at their God-given innocence; their souls are so tender; we must protect them, Tituba; the devil is out and preying on them like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb…God will bless you for your help…
ABIGAIL: (Hands clasped, eyes closed.)

ANN: Her claws, she’s stretching her claws!

(Betty collapses in her hands.)

And then she replies: (Mimicking an old crone.)—“Why, your excellence, no curse at all; I only say my commandments; I hope I may say my commandments,” says she!

I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with-
TITUBA: Mister Reverend, I never-
HALE: When did you compact with the Devil?

We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment.

PROCTOR: And so condemned her?

ABIGAIL: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it.

But if she speaks true, I bid you now drop your guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you.

DANFORTH: Accept my congratulations, Reverend Hale; we are gladdened to see you returned to your good work.

PARRIS: Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I know you have not been open with me.

PARRIS: Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the dead!

Without confidences there could be no conspiracy, Your Honor!

ELIZABETH: John, have you ever shown her somewhat of contempt?

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

PUTNAM: Now, look you, Mr. Parris; I have taken your part in all contention here, and I would continue; but cannot if you hold back in this.

PARRIS: Giles Corey, sir, and a more contentious…
COREY: I am asked the question and I am old enough to answer it!

PUTNAM: Now, look you, Mr. Parris; I have taken your part in all contention here, and I would continue; but cannot if you hold back in this.

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.

They will howl me out of Salem for such a corruption in my house.

Now sit you down and take counsel with yourself, or you will be set in the jail until you decide to answer all questions.

I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her, my babies always shriveled in her hands…
HALE: Take courage, you must give us all their names.

I have been in court six times this year.

Now my ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life…..whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

PROCTOR: You are a coward!

And then she replies: (Mimicking an old crone.)—“Why, your excellence, no curse at all; I only say my commandments; I hope I may say my commandments,” says she!

(Putnam crosses L. to above table, gets hat, crosses and exits.)

The Crucible
By Arthur Miller
ACT I: Scene 1
SETTING: A bedroom in Reverend Samuel Parris’ house, Salem, Massachusetts, in the Spring of the year, 1692.

ELIZABETH: She were… (She glances at Proctor for a cue.)

ELIZABETH: Why… I do, think, but…
MARY: And so I told that to Judge Hathorne, and he asks her so—“Goody Good,” says he, “what curse do you mumble that this girl must fall sick after turning you away?”

PROCTOR: I never knew until tonight that the world is gone daft with this nonsense.

I have seen people choked before my eyes by spirits, I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers.

COREY: John Proctor, I have only last month collected four pound damages for you publicly saying I burned the roof off your house, and I-
PROCTOR: I never said no such thing, but I paid you for it, so I hope I can call you deaf without charge.

Now my ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life…..whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

Be you deaf?

They are all deceiving you.

Mr. Paris, I hope you are not decided to go in search of loose sprits.

Wait for no one to charge you-declare it yourself.

PROCTOR: Is it the devil’s fault that a man cannot say you “Good Morning” without you clap him for defamation?

NURSE: (With deference but emphasis.)

MARY: (Defiantly.)

PROCTOR: Aye.
ELIZABETH: (Delicately.)

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

ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself.

She has signed a deposition, sir….

They’ve sent four judges out of Boston, she says, weighty magistrates of the General Court, and at the head sits the Deputy Governor of the Province.

(Starts out R.)
ELIZABETH: (With a note of desperation.)

Now then… it does not escape me that this deposition may be devised to blind us; (To Hathorne.) it may well be that Mary Warren has been conquered by Satan who sends her here to distract our sacred purpose.

PARRIS: Go directly home and speak nothin’ of unnatural causes.

SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.

But I said I never see no sign you ever sent your spirit out to hurt no one, and seeing I do live so closely with you, they dismissed it.

They are followed in by Cheever, who carries a dispatch case and a flat wooden box containing his writing materials.

PARRIS: I have no stomach for disputation this morning.

COREY: Your Excellency, we mean no disrespect for…
DANFORTH: Disrespect, indeed!-It

PARRIS: Now then-in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to be the very center of some obscene practice.

She… dissatisfied me… (Adding.) and my husband.

(Betty dissolves into sobs.)

When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor… But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then… (Entranced as though it were a miracle.)

And she may dote on it now-I am sure she does-and thinks to kill me, then to take my place.

You doubt me yet?!

And in my ignorance, I find it hard to draw a clear opinion of them that come accused before the court.

He is in the dungeon.

(On the girls’ ecstatic cries, CURTAIN FALLS.)

I’ll have no effrontery here.

COREY: (Emphatically.)

DANFORTH: Mister Hale, as God have not empowered me like Joshua to stop this sun from rising, so I cannot withhold from them the perfection of their punishment.

DANFORTH: Mister Hale, as God have not empowered me like Joshua to stop this sun from rising, so I cannot withhold from them the perfection of their punishment.

MERCY: (Rising, crossing to entrance.

When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor… But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then… (Entranced as though it were a miracle.)

HALE: You cannot evade me, Abigail.—Did your cousin drink any of the brew in that kettle?

There is too much evidence now to deny it.

They had Doctor Griggs examine her and she’s full to the brim.

PARRIS: It cannot be forgot, sir, (Danforth rises, gets list from Cheever, takes spectacles out and reads by light of lamp.) that when I summoned the congregation for John Proctor’s excommunication, there were hardly thirty people come to hear it.

PARRIS: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit.

ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

ELIZABETH: John, if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now?

HALE: Excellency, if you postpone a week, and publish to the town that you are striving for their confessions, that speak mercy on your part, not faltering.

And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she… (To Proctor.) testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.

PARRIS: No, no, these are farmers.

You have a faulty understanding of young girls.

MARY: (Fervently, with a trembling, decayed voice.)

Fetch Mary here.

I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face.

Postponement, now, speaks a… a floundering (Willard ENTERS.) on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now.—Have you spoken with them all, Mister Hale?

I forbid you leave the house, did I not?

That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?!

Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small.

Betty, frantically.)

You must tell them it is a fraud.

PROCTOR: Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer. (enter Mary) How dare you go to Salem when I forbid it!

ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.

He is gaunt, frightened and sweating.)

And I heard a screeching and gibberish comin’ from her mouth…
ABIGAIL: She always sings her Barbados songs and we dance.

Let Rebecca stand upon the gibbet and send up some righteous prayer, and I feel she’ll wake a vengeance on you.

DANFORTH: Accept my congratulations, Reverend Hale; we are gladdened to see you returned to your good work.

DANFORTH: (Glancing at long list.)

ABIGAIL: (It is rising to a great glee.)

Mister Parris no goodly man, Mister Parris mean man and no gentle man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your throat!

They’ve sent four judges out of Boston, she says, weighty magistrates of the General Court, and at the head sits the Deputy Governor of the Province.

Grabbing her wrists.)

What say you, Guiles?

PROCTOR: They’re gulling you, Mister!

HALE: Pray you, someone take these!

Believe me, Sir, you never saw more hearty babies born.

COREY: I cannot tell; she hides them.

HALE: Now in God’s holy name…
TITUBA: Bless Him…bless Him…
HALE: And to His Glory…
TITUBA: Eternal Glory…Bless Him….Bless

And I beg you be clear, open as the sky, and honest.

DANFORTH: Children, a very auger bit will now be turned into your souls until your honesty is proved.

Thou shalt honor thy father and mother.

(Nurse is still standing, horrified.)

They will howl me out of Salem for such a corruption in my house.

Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband any more.

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

DANFORTH: (Growing hysterical.)

MARY: (Impatient at his stupidity.)

She’s improved a little, I think-she give a powerful sneeze before.

HALE: (Incredulously.)

(In a crisis of indecision she cannot speak.)

In nomine Domini Sabaoth, sui filiique ite d Infernos.

Old man, if your informant tells the truth let him come here openly like a decent man.

Look at them, Tituba-look at their God-given innocence; their souls are so tender; we must protect them, Tituba; the devil is out and preying on them like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb…God will bless you for your help…
ABIGAIL: (Hands clasped, eyes closed.)

And smokin’ a pipe all these years and no husband either!—but she’s safe, thank God, for they’ll not hurt the innocent child.

HALE: No-no…Now let me instruct you.

DANFORTH: (Irritated.)

DANFORTH: (Irritated.)

The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone and we must look only for his proper signs and judge nothing beforehand, and I must tell you all, that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no trace of hell in this.

ELIZABETH: Aye! (Gets jug from off L., pours drink into pewter mug, brings it to him.)

PARRIS: I think I ought to say that I—I saw a kettle in the grass where they were dancing.

PARRIS: No—no, it were secret…
ANN: Mr. Parris’ slave has knowledge of conjurin’, sir.

MARY: I am bound by law; I cannot tell it.

What lawyer drew this, Corey?

ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.

Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mister Proctor!

DANFORTH: How were you instructed in your life?—Do you not know that God damns all liars?

ABIGAIL: Why, it were beans—and lintels, I think, and—
HALE: Mister Parris, you did not notice, did you—any living thing in the kettle?

With loathing.)

PROCTOR: I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; I like not the smell of this “authority,” I have a crop to sow, and lumber to drag home.

Why, she’s mad.

They’ve sent four judges out of Boston, she says, weighty magistrates of the General Court, and at the head sits the Deputy Governor of the Province.

PUTNAM: The marshal, I’ll call the marshal!

ANN: It is a marvel.

It is a marvelous sign, Mister Parris!

REBECCA: He does not mean that….

There are many others who stay away from church these days because he hardly ever mentions God any more.

They will make of it a…
MERCY: Your pardons…I only thought to see how Betty is.

Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times.

And then she replies: (Mimicking an old crone.)—“Why, your excellence, no curse at all; I only say my commandments; I hope I may say my commandments,” says she!

Are you our minister or Mister Hale?

Now my ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life…..whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

PROCTOR: I come to see what mischief your uncle’s brewin’ now.

You mistake yourself, Uncle!

PROCTOR: No, sir, you are mistaken….

To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a…
DANFORTH: (He weakens.)

When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor… But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then… (Entranced as though it were a miracle.)

ABIGAIL: (Now she takes a backward step, as though the bird would swoop down momentarily.)

COREY: That bloody mongrel Walcott charge her.

She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it.

The town’s mumbling witchcraft.

ANN: I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us who murdered my babies.

I stand mute.

She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve girl.)

ANN: She ails as she must—she never waked this morning but her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat.

HALE: We shall need hard study, if it comes to tracking down the Old Boy. You cannot be Rebecca Nurse?

CHEEVER: Why… (Draws out a long needle from doll.) it is a needle!

That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?!

PROCTOR: I never knew until tonight that the world is gone daft with this nonsense.

PARRIS: Now then-in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to be the very center of some obscene practice.

I tell you true, Proctor, I never warranted to see such proof of Hell, and I bid you obstruct me not, for I… (Enter Elizabeth with Mary.)

I’ve heard the promise of that outside…
PARRIS: A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong.

The man’s ordained, therefore the light of God is in him.

The man’s ordained, therefore the light of God is in him.

PARRIS: They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir!

They will make of it a…
MERCY: Your pardons…I only thought to see how Betty is.

I’ve heard the promise of that outside…
PARRIS: A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong.

(Pauses.

Danforth is peeved at Parris.)

Is there no good penitence but it be public?

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.

HALE: You permit dancing?!

ELIZABETH: (Perplexed, she looks at the doll.)

ELIZABETH: (Perplexed, she looks at the doll.)

And always plaintiff, too
DANFORTH: (Lightly.)

ELIZABETH: (A plea.)

HALE: (Pleading.)

ABIGAIL: Oh, posh!—We were dancin’ in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us.

PARRIS: Excellency… I would postpone these hangin’s for a time.

DANFORTH: There will be no postponement.

PARRIS: Praise God!
PROCTOR: Mary, how…?

SUSANNA: Aye, sir, I pray for her.

PARRIS: Well, you do come prepared!

They are also pretending?

It were pretense, sir.

My insides are all shuddery; I am in the proceedings all day, sir.

ELIZABETH: (Quietly, fearing to anger him by prodding.

PUTNAM: That is a notorious sign of witchcraft afoot, a prodigious sign.

She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it.

I’ve heard the promise of that outside…
PARRIS: A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong.

And mark this proof! –mark it!

The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone and we must look only for his proper signs and judge nothing beforehand, and I must tell you all, that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no trace of hell in this.

I am only wondering how I may prove what she told me, Elizabeth.

Oh, good morning, Mister Putnam…
PUTNAM: It is a providence the thing is out now!

I am one of nine sons; the Putnam seed have peopled this province.

I will lead them in a psalm.

For them that quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud.

PARRIS: (In a quavering voice, quietly.)

PARRIS: (In a quavering voice, quietly.)

ELIZABETH: (Quietly, fearing to anger him by prodding.

MERCY: It’s on the beam!—behind the rafter!

I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand—I saw Sarah Good (Betty’s hands appear above headboard raised toward the heaven.) with the Devil!

The rumor here speaks rebellion in Andover, and it…
DANFORTH: (Strongly protesting.)

MARY: Aye, but then Judge Hathorne say, “Recite for us your commandments!”—and of all the ten she could not say a single one.

And mark this—let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

HALE: (Thoughtfully and regretfully.)

He has much experience in all demonic arts, and I …
ANN: He has indeed, and found by a witch in Beverly last year, and let you remember that.

ELIZABETH: (Removes water and towel, goes out L., and returns with dish of stew.)

Postponement, now, speaks a… a floundering (Willard ENTERS.) on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now.—Have you spoken with them all, Mister Hale?

ELIZABETH: (Unable to restrain her anxiety.)

And I… My husband is a good and righteous man.

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

ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself.

The town’s gone wild, I think—Mary Warren speak of Abigail as though she were a saint, to hear her.

Come, man, there is light in the sky; the town waits at the scaffold, I would give out this news.

The Crucible
By Arthur Miller
ACT I: Scene 1
SETTING: A bedroom in Reverend Samuel Parris’ house, Salem, Massachusetts, in the Spring of the year, 1692.

And I heard a screeching and gibberish comin’ from her mouth…
ABIGAIL: She always sings her Barbados songs and we dance.

PARRIS: Then he must search on.

(She shivers and looks at Mary, then folds her arms around her.)—there is…
DANFORTH: (Apprehensively.)

I come now from Rebecca Nurse’s house and…
ELIZABETH: (Shocked.)

A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life, too.

I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her, my babies always shriveled in her hands…
HALE: Take courage, you must give us all their names.

Oh, I marvel how such a (Beating her fists against his chest.) strong man may let such a sickly wife be…
PROCTOR: (Coldly.

(Mercy sidles out.

And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?

COREY: Mister Hale… I have always wanted to ask a learned man—What signifies the readin’ of strange books?

Are you silencing this child?

(Slight pause as Proctor watches Elizabeth pass him, then speaks, being aware of Elizabeth’s alarm.)

Were she slovenly?

She is a cold sniveling woman and you bend to her!

(Betty dissolves into sobs.)

God keep you both; let the third child be quickly baptized and go you without fail each Sunday into Sabbath prayer; and keep a solemn, quiet way among you.

She is a twisted soul of forty-five, a death-ridden woman, haunted by dreams.)

Now look you, child-if you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it, for surely my enemies will, and they’ll ruin me with it…
Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies?

PROCTOR: I never spoke on witches one way or the other.

ABIGAIL: I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!

MARY: I… (She glances at Abigail who is staring down at her remorselessly.)

HALE: I hope I do not startle you.

ELIZABETH: (Removes water and towel, goes out L., and returns with dish of stew.)

HALE: Excellency, there are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle below on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hang everywhere, and no man knows when the harlots’ cry will end his life—and you wonder yet if rebellion’s spoke?

Look you, Ann.
ANN: Why, that’s strange.

PUTNAM: Now look you, sir-let you strike out against the Devil and the village will bless you for it!

MARY: (Striving for her authority.)

MARY: (Impatient at his stupidity.)

She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve girl.)

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.

ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.

Think on it, wherefore is everybody suing everybody else.

PARRIS: These people should be summoned for questioning.

I’ll not have your suspicion any more.

PARRIS: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit.

ABIGAIL: I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!

ABIGAIL: (Now she takes a backward step, as though the bird would swoop down momentarily.)

(Putnam crosses L. to above table, gets hat, crosses and exits.)

HALE: Believe me, sir, if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world from burning.

HALE: Believe me, sir, if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world from burning.

(A fury is riding in him, a tantalized search.)

It’s a sort of testament.

And you… would you testify this to the court?

Let him look to medicine, and put out all thought of unnatural causes here.

PROCTOR: (A threat.)

Has Mister Proctor threatened you for this deposition?

I’ll wait till Mister Hale arrives.

Titillated.

In my house, Thomas?-they will topple me with this!

(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.)

A trembling below the ground?

PARRIS: (Triumphantly.)

Now tell me true, Abigail.

Now my ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life…..whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

DANFORTH: (With great unbelief.)

PROCTOR: Why, I… I would free my wife, sir…
DANFORTH: There lurks nowhere in your heart, nor hidden in your spirit, any desire to undermine this court?

Now look you, child-if you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it, for surely my enemies will, and they’ll ruin me with it…
Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies?

PROCTOR: (With a violent undertone.)

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

ABIGAIL: (Unperturbed, continues to “bird.”)

ELIZABETH: And that’s an upright answer.

HALE: (With great urgency.)

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

I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem.

There are hurtful, vengeful spirits layin’ hands on these children.

PUTNAM: Now look you, sir-let you strike out against the Devil and the village will bless you for it!

PROCTOR: (Angrily in a loud voice as Mary is crossing.)

ANN: She ails as she must—she never waked this morning but her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat.

Did you consult the wardens of the church before you called the minister to look for devils?

(Takes a warrant from pocket.)

Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear.

I do not wish to be put out like the cat, whenever some majority feels the whim.

ABIGAIL: (Betty whimpers.)

(The words “Jehovah” are heard in the psalm—the song outside—Betty claps her ear suddenly, and whines loudly Parris ENTERS.)

We must tell the truth, Abby!—you’ll only be whipped for dancin’, and the other things!

HALE: Aye. But the Devil is a wily one, you cannot deny it.

Now mark me, if the Devil is in her you will witness some frightful wonders in this room, so please to keep your wits about you.

Now mark me, if the Devil is in her you will witness some frightful wonders in this room, so please to keep your wits about you.

Now mark me, if the Devil is in her you will witness some frightful wonders in this room, so please to keep your wits about you.