2
PARRIS: I saw it! Now tell me true, Abigail. And I pray you feel
the weight of truth upon you. 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.
ABIGAIL: There is nothin’ more. I swear it, Uncle.
PARRIS: Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend
these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some
good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my
very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put
clothes upon your back – now give me an upright answer. Your
name in the town – it is entirely white, is it not?
Abigial: Why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about my
name.
PARRIS: Abigial, is there any other cause than you have told me,
for your being discharged from Goody Proctor’s service seven
months back? I’ve heard it said, and … I’ll tell you how I heard it,
that she comes so rarely to church this year for she will not sit so
close to something soiled. What signified that remark?
Abigail: She hates me uncle, she must, for I would not be her
slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I
will not work for such a woman! My name is good in the village!
I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a
gossiping liar!
(Enter Mrs. Ann Putnam, forty-five, and Thomas Putnam, near
fifty.)
PARRIS: Why, Goody Putnam, Mr. Putnam, come in.
ANN: It is a marvel. It is surely a stroke of hell upon you…
PARRIS: No, Goody Putnam, it is…
ANN: How high did your Betty fly, how high?
PARRIS: No—no, she never flew…
ANN: Why, it’s sure she did; Mister Collins saw her goin’ over
Ingersoll’s barn, and come down light as bird, he says!
PARRIS: Now, look you, Goody Putnam; she never…
PUTNAM: Look you, Ann. Betty’s eyes is closed!
ANN: Why, that’s strange. Ours is open.
PARRIS: Your Ruth is sick?
ANN: I’d not call it sick, the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick, it’s
death, y’know, it’s death drivin’ into them forked and hoofed.
PARRIS: Oh, pray not! Why, how does your Ruth ail?
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. Her soul is taken, surely.
PUTNAM: They say you’ve sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly?
PARRIS: A precaution only. He has much experience in all
demonic arts, and I …
ANN: He has indeed, and found a witch in Beverly last year, and
let you remember that.
PARRIS: Now, Goody Ann, they only thought that were a witch,
and I am certain there be no element of witchcraft here.
PUTNAM: No witchcraft! Now look you, Mr. Parris –
PARRIS: No, no, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. They
will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.
PUTNAM: Ann, tell Mr. Parris what you have done.
ANN: Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the
earth. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only-I saw her turning
strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels
like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life, too. And so I
thought to send her to your Tituba-
PARRIS: To Tituba! What may Tituba….?
ANN: Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mister Parris.
PARRIS: Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the
dead!
ANN: I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what
person murdered my babies.
PARRIS: Woman!
ANN: They were murdered, Mister Parris! And mark this proof! –
mark it! Last night my Ruth were ever so close to their little
spirits, I know it, sir. For how else is she stuck dumb now except
some power of darkness would stop her mouth? It is a
marvelous sign, Mister Parris! Don’t you understand it, sir?
There is a murdering witch among us bound to keep herself in
the dark. You cannot blink it more.
PARRIS: Then you were conjuring spirits last night, Abigail.
ABIGAIL: Not I, sir, Tituba and Ruth.
PARRIS: Oh, oh, my poor Betty. Abigail, what proper payment
for my charity? Now I am undone.
