2
PARRIS: Hear me. Rebecca have not given me a word this three
months since she came. Now she sits with him, and her sister
and Martha Corey and two or three others, and he pleads with
them confess their crimes and save their lives.
DANFORTH: Why—this is indeed a providence. And they soften,
they soften?
PARRIS: Not yet, not yet. But I thought to summon you, sir, that
we might not think on whether it be not wise to – I had thought
to put a question, sir, and I hope you will not –
DANFORTH: Mister Parris, be plain, what troubles you?
PARRIS: There is news, sir, that the court, the court must reckon
with. My niece, sir, my niece – I believe she has vanished.
DANFORTH: Vanished!
PARRIS: I had thought to advise you of it earlier in the week,
but…
DANFORTH: Why?—how long is she gone?
PARRIS: This be the third night. She and Mercy Lewis are both
gone.
DANFORTH: I will send a party for them. Where may they be?
PARRIS: Excellency, I think they be aboard a ship. My daughter
tells me how she hears them speakin‘ of ships last week, and
tonight I discover my… my strongbox is broken into.
HATHORNE: She have robbed you?
PARRIS: Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless.
DANFORTH: Mister Parris, you are a brainless man!
PARRIS: Excellency, it profit nothing you should blame me. I
cannot think they would run off except they fear to keep in
Salem anymore. Mark it, sir, Abigail had close knowledge of the
town, and since the news of Andover has broken here –
DANFORTH: Andover is remedied. The court returns there on
Friday, and will resume examinations.
PARRIS: I am sure of it, sir. But the rumor here speaks rebellion
in Andover, and it…
DANFORTH: There is no rebellion in Andover!
PARRIS: I tell you what is spoken here, sir. Andover have thrown
out the court, they say, and will have no part of witchcraft.
There be a faction here feeding on that news, and I tell you true,
sir, I fear there will be riot here.
HATHORNE: Riot!—Why, at every execution I have seen naught
but high satisfaction in the town.
PARRIS: Judge Hathorne—it were another sort that hanged till
now. Rebecca Nurse is no Bridget that lived three year with
Bishop before she married him. John Proctor is not Isaac Ward
that drank his family to ruin. (To Danforth.) I would to God it
were not so, Excellency, but these people have great weight yet
in the town. Let Rebecca stand upon the gibbet and send up
some righteous prayer, and I feel she‘ll wake a vengeance on
you.
HATHORNE: Excellency, she is a condemned witch.
DANFORTH: Pray you –
HATHORNE: The court have –
DANFORTH: How do you propose that, Mister Parris?
PARRIS: Excellency… I would postpone these hangin‘s for a time.
DANFORTH: There will be no postponement.
PARRIS: Now Mister Hale‘s returned, there is hope, I think—for if
he bring even one of these to God, that confession surely damns
the others in the public eye, and none may doubt any more that
they are all linked to Hell. This way, unconfessed and claiming
innocence, doubts are multiplied, and honest people will weep
for them, and our good purpose is lost in their tears. It cannot be
forgot, sir, that when I summoned the congregation for John
Proctor‘s excommunication, there were hardly thirty people
come to hear it. That speak a discontent, I think, and…
DANFORTH: There will be no postponement. Now, sir, which of
the condemned, in your opinion, may be brought to God? I will,
myself, strive with him ‘till dawn.
PARRIS: There is not sufficient time till dawn.
DANFORTH: I shall to my utmost. Which of them do you have
hope for?
PARRIS: Excellency… a dagger…
DANFORTH: What do you say?
PARRIS: Tonight, when I open my door to leave my house—a
dagger clattered to the ground. You cannot hang this sort. There
is danger for me. I dare not step out at night!
(Hale enters, exhausted.)
HERRICK: Reverend Hale, sir.
DANFORTH: Accept my congratulations, Reverend Hale; we are
gladdened to see you returned to your good work.
