From d107491287cb299a20bb0e563a82d3f088976516 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe Hendricks Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 22:46:13 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Part 1 and 2 finished and passing --- src/main/java/io/zipcoder/ParenChecker.java | 45 ++++++++++++++++- src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java | 1 + .../java/io/zipcoder/ParenCheckerTest.java | 50 +++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 95 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/ParenChecker.java b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/ParenChecker.java index caee675..96766c8 100644 --- a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/ParenChecker.java +++ b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/ParenChecker.java @@ -1,4 +1,47 @@ package io.zipcoder; +import java.util.Stack; + public class ParenChecker { -} + + Stack parenStack = new Stack(); + + public boolean parenCheck(String string){ + + for(int i = 0; i < string.length(); i++){ + if(string.charAt(i)==')' && parenStack.empty()){ + break; + } + if(string.charAt(i)=='('){ + parenStack.push(string.charAt(i)); + } + if(string.charAt(i)==')'){ + parenStack.pop(); + } + } + + return parenStack.empty(); + } + + public boolean parenPairs(String string) { + for (int i = 0; i < string.length(); i++) { + char current = string.charAt(i); + if (current == '(' || current == '{' + || current == '[' || current == '<' || current == '"' || current == '\'') { + parenStack.push(current); + } + if ((current == ')' || current == '}' || current == ']' || current == '>') || current == '"' || current == '\'') { + if (parenStack.isEmpty()) { + return false; + } + char last = parenStack.peek(); + if (current == ')' && last == '(' || current == '}' && last == '{' + || current == ']' && last == '[' || current == '>' && last == '<' || current == '"' && last == '"' + || current == '\'' && last == '\'') { + parenStack.pop(); + } + } + } + return parenStack.isEmpty(); + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java index babb68c..a23a2d8 100644 --- a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java +++ b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java @@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ public WC(String fileName) { } public WC(Iterator si) { + this.si = si; } } diff --git a/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/ParenCheckerTest.java b/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/ParenCheckerTest.java index 76aa3b6..2337f04 100644 --- a/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/ParenCheckerTest.java +++ b/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/ParenCheckerTest.java @@ -3,6 +3,56 @@ import org.junit.Assert; import org.junit.Test; +import java.util.Stack; + public class ParenCheckerTest { + @Test + public void parenCheckTest(){ + //Given + ParenChecker parenTest = new ParenChecker(); + + //When + String string1 = "I love ( cheese )"; + boolean actual = parenTest.parenCheck(string1); + + //Then + Assert.assertTrue(actual); + } + + @Test + public void parenCheck2Test(){ + //Given + ParenChecker parenTest = new ParenChecker(); + + //When + String string2 = "I really ( love cheese"; + + //Then + Assert.assertFalse(parenTest.parenCheck(string2)); + } + + @Test + public void parenPairsTest(){ + //Given + ParenChecker parenTest = new ParenChecker(); + + //When + String string1 = "I really ( love cheese ) and { chicken }"; + + //Then + Assert.assertTrue(parenTest.parenPairs(string1)); + + } + + @Test + public void parenPairs2Test(){ + //Given + ParenChecker parenTest = new ParenChecker(); + + String string1 = "I really ( love cheese ) a{n]d { chicken"; + + Assert.assertFalse(parenTest.parenPairs(string1)); + + } } \ No newline at end of file From c242dd4ec56007a1208cd4c7557aa0d688a6b480 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe Hendricks Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:49:24 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Finished Lab --- src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java | 60 +- src/main/resources/testFile.txt | 8 + src/main/resources/theCrucible.txt | 6473 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ src/test/java/io/zipcoder/WCTest.java | 35 +- 4 files changed, 6571 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) create mode 100644 src/main/resources/testFile.txt create mode 100644 src/main/resources/theCrucible.txt diff --git a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java index a23a2d8..a514b36 100644 --- a/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java +++ b/src/main/java/io/zipcoder/WC.java @@ -2,11 +2,13 @@ import java.io.FileNotFoundException; import java.io.FileReader; -import java.util.Iterator; -import java.util.Scanner; +import java.util.*; public class WC { private Iterator si; + private int counter = 0; + + Map reader = new HashMap(); public WC(String fileName) { try { @@ -18,7 +20,59 @@ public WC(String fileName) { } public WC(Iterator si) { - this.si = si; + + } + + public Map wordCollector(){ + while(si.hasNext()){ + String nextWord = si.next().toLowerCase().replaceAll("[^a-z']", ""); + if(reader.containsKey(nextWord)){ + reader.put(nextWord, reader.get(nextWord) + 1); + counter++; + } else { + reader.put(nextWord, 1); + counter++; + } + } + return reader; + } + + public Map sortByCount(){ + + List> list = new LinkedList>(reader.entrySet()); + + //sort the list in descending order with a comparator + Collections.sort(list, new Comparator>() { + public int compare(Map.Entry o1, Map.Entry o2) { + return (o2.getValue()).compareTo(o1.getValue()); + } + }); + + //convert sortedMap back to Map + Map sortedMap = new LinkedHashMap(); + for (Map.Entry entry : list) { + sortedMap.put(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()); + } + return sortedMap; + } + + public int countWord() { + return counter; + } + + public String printMap(Map map){ + + StringBuilder mapBuilder = new StringBuilder(); + + for(String key : map.keySet()){ + mapBuilder.append(String.format("%-2s", reader.get(key))); + mapBuilder.append(String.format("%-2s", ":")); + mapBuilder.append(key); + mapBuilder.append("\n"); + } + + return mapBuilder.toString(); } } + diff --git a/src/main/resources/testFile.txt b/src/main/resources/testFile.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ea456d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/main/resources/testFile.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +I love love cheese. +I love every type of + + +cheese cheese cheese's! + + +I love apples. diff --git a/src/main/resources/theCrucible.txt b/src/main/resources/theCrucible.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df6e004 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/main/resources/theCrucible.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6473 @@ +A NOTE ON THE HISTORICAL ACCURACY OF THIS PLAY + + +This play is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic +historian. Dramatic purposes have sometimes required many characters to be fused into +one; the number of girls involved in the “crying-out” has been reduced; Abigail’s age +has been raised; while there were several judges of almost equal authority, I have +symbolized them all in Hathorne and Danforth. However, I believe that the reader will +discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in +human history. The fate of each character is exactly that of his historical model, and +there is no one in the drama who did not play a similar - and in some cases exactly the +same - role in history. + +As for the characters of the persons, little is known about most of them excepting +what may be surmised from a few letters, the trial record, certain broadsides written at +the time, and references to their conduct in sources of varying reliability. They may +therefore be taken as creations of my own, drawn to the best of my ability in conformity +with their known behavior, except as indicated in the commentary 1 have written for this +text. + + + +ACT ONE +(AN OVERTURE) + + +A small upper bedroom in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem, +Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1692. + +There is a narrow window at the left. Through its leaded panes the morning +sunlight streams. A candle still burns near the bed, which is at the right. A +chest, a chair, and a small table are the other furnishings. At the back a door +opens on the landing of the stairway to the ground floor. The room gives op an +air of clean spareness. The roof rafters are exposed, and the wood colors are +raw and unmellowed. + +As the curtain rises, Reverend Parris is discovered kneeling be-side the bed, +evidently in prayer. His daughter, Betty Parris, aged ten, is lying on the bed, +inert. + +At the time of these events Parris was in his middle forties. In history he cut a +villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him. He believed he +was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people +and God to his side. In meeting, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door +without first asking his permission. He was a widower with no interest in +children, or talent with them. He regarded them as + +3 + + + +The Crucible + + +young adults, and until this strange crisis he, like the rest of Salem, never conceived that +the children were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes +slightly low-ered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak. + +His house stood in the “town” - but we today would hardly call it a village. The +meeting house was nearby, and from this point outward - toward the bay or inland - +there were a few small-windowed, dark houses snuggling against the raw Massa- +chusetts winter. Salem had been established hardly forty years before. To the European +world the whole province was a bar-baric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics who, +nevertheless, were shipping out products of slowly increasing quantity and value. + +No one can really know what their lives were like. They had no novelists - and would +not have permitted anyone to read a novel if one were handy. Their creed forbade +anything re-sembling a theater or “vain enjoyment.” They did not celebrate Christmas, +and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer. + +Which is not to say that nothing broke into this strict and somber way of life. When a +new farmhouse was built, friends assembled to “raise the roof,” and there would be +special foods cooked and probably some potent cider passed around. There was a good +supply of ne’er-do-wells in Salem, who dallied at the shovelboard in Bridget Bishop’s +tavern. Probably more than the creed, hard work kept the morals of the place from +spoiling, for the people were forced to fight the land like heroes for every grain of com, +and no man had very much time for fooling around. + +That there were some jokers, however, is indicated by the practice of appointing a +two-man patrol whose duty was to “walk forth in the time of God’s worship to take +notice of such as either lye about the meeting house, without attending to the word and +ordinances, or that lye at home or in the fields with-out giving good account thereof, and +to take the names of such + + + +Act One + + +5 + + +persons, and to present them to the magistrates, whereby they may be accordingly +proceeded against.” Thi s predilection for minding other people’s business was time- +honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the sus-picions +which were to feed the coming madness. It was also, in my opinion, one of the things +that a John Proctor would rebel against, for the time of the armed camp had almost +passed, and since the country was reasonably - although not wholly - safe, the old +disciplines were beginning to rankle. But, as in all such matters, the issue was not clear- +cut, for danger was still a possibility, and in unity still lay the best promise of safety. + +The edge of the wilderness was close by. The American con-tinent stretched endlessly +west, and it was full of mystery for them. It stood, dark and threatening, over their +shoulders night and day, for out of it Indian tribes marauded from time to time, and +Reverend Parris had parishioners who had lost relatives to these heathen. + +The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to +convert the Indians. Probably they also pre-ferred to take land from heathens rather than +from fellow Christians. At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem +folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the +citadel of his final stand. To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last +place on earth that was not paying homage to God. + +For these reasons, among others, they carried about an air of innate resistance, even of +persecution. Their fathers had, of course, been persecuted in England. So now they and +their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom; lest their New +Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong ways and deceitful ideas. + +They believed, in short, that they held in their steady hands the candle that would +light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and hurt us. It helped +them with the discipline it gave them. They were a dedicated folk, by and large, + + + +6 + + +The Crucible + + +and they had to be to survive the life they had chosen or been bom into in this +country. + +The proof of their beliefs value to them may be taken from the opposite +character of the first Jamestown settlement, farther south, in Virginia. The +Englishmen who landed there were motivated mainly by a hunt for profit. They +had thought to pick off the wealth of the new country and then return rich to +Eng-land. They were a band of individualists, and a much more ingratiating +group than the Massachusetts men. But Virginia destroyed them. Massachusetts +tried to kill off the Puritans, but they combined; they set up a communal society +which, in the beginning, was little more than an armed camp with an auto-cratic +and very devoted leadership. It was, however, an autoc-racy by consent, for they +were united from top to bottom by a commonly held ideology whose +perpetuation was the reason and justification for all their sufferings. So their +self-denial, their purposefulness, their suspicion of all vain pursuits, their hard- +handed justice, were altogether perfect instruments for the con-quest of this +space so antagonistic to man. + +But the people of Salem in 1692 were not quite the dedicated folk that arrived +on the Mayflower. A vast differentiation had taken place, and in their own time +a revolution had unseated the royal government and substituted a junta which +was at this moment in power. The times, to their eyes, must have been out of +joint, and to the common folk must have seemed as insoluble and complicated +as do ours today. It is not hard to see how easily many could have been led to +believe that the time of confusion had been brought upon them by deep and +darkling forces. No hint of such speculation appears on the court record, but +social disorder in any age breeds such mystical suspicions, and when, as in +Salem, wonders are brought forth from below the social surface, it is too much +to expect people to hold back very long from laying on the victims with all the +force of their frustrations. + +The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, + + + +Act One + + +7 + + +developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no +prospect yet that we will discover its res-olution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, +even high pur-poses, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and +religious power whose function was to keep the com-munity together, and to prevent +any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. +It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that pur-pose. But all +organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as +two objects cannot occupy the same space. Evidently the time came in New England +when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers +against which the order was organized. The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of +the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater +individual freedom. + +When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, +just as we shall be pitied someday. It is still impossible for man to organize his social +life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be struck between order and +freedom. + +The witch-hunt was not, however, a mere repression. It was also, and as importantly, +a long overdue opportunity for every-one so inclined to express publicly his guilt and +sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims. It suddenly became possible - +and patriotic and holy - for a man to say that Martha Corey had come into his bedroom +at night, and that, while his wife was sleeping at his side, Martha laid herself down on +his chest and “nearly suffocated him.” Of course it was her spirit only, but his +satisfaction at confessing himself was no lighter than if it had been Martha herself. One +could not ordinarily speak such things in public. + +Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly ex-pressed, and vengeance +taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injunctions. Land-lust which had been expressed +before by con- + + + +The Crucible + + +stant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be ele-vated to the arena of +morality; one could cry witch against one’s neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the +bargain. Old scores could be settled on a plane of heavenly combat between Lucifer and +the Lord; suspicions and the envy of the miserable toward the happy could and did burst +out in the general revenge. + +Reverend Parris is praying now, and, though we cannot hear his words, a sense of his +confusion hangs about him. He mumbles, then seems about to weep; then he weeps, +then, prays again; but his daughter does not stir on the bed. + +The door opens, and his Negro slave enters. Tituba is in her forties. Parris brought her +with him from Barbados, where he spent some years as a merchant before entering the +ministry’. She enters as one does who can no longer bear to be barred from the sight of +her beloved, but she is also very frightened because her slave sense has warned her +that, as always, trouble in this house eventually lands on her back. + +Tituba, already taking a step backward: My Betty be hearty soon? + +Parris: Out of here! + +Tituba, backing to the door: My Betty not goin’ die... + +Parris, scrambling to his feet in a fury: Out of my sight! She is gone. Out of my - He is +overcome with sobs. He clamps his teeth against them and closes the door and leans +against it, ex-hausted. Oh, my God! God help me! Quaking with fear, mum-bling to +himself through his sobs, he goes to the bed and gently takes Betty ’s hand. Betty. Child. +Dear child. Will you wake, will you open up your eyes! Betty, little one... + +He is bending to kneel again when his niece, Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters - a +strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an + + + +Act One + + +9 + + +endless capacity for dissembling. Now she is all worry’ and appre-hension and +propriety. + +Abigail: Uncle? He looks to her. Susanna Walcott’s here from Doctor Griggs. +Parris: Oh?. Let her come, let her come. + +Abigail, leaning out the door to call to Susanna, who is down the hall a few +steps: Come in, Susanna. + +Susanna Walcott, a little younger than Abigail, a nervous, hur-ried girl, enters. +Parris, eagerly: What does the doctor say, child? + +Susanna, craning around Parris to get a look at Betty: He bid me come and tell +you, reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books. + +Parris: Then he must search on. + +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 un-natural things for the cause of it. + +Parris, his eyes going wide: No - no. There be no unnatural cause here. Tell him +I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mr. Hale will surely confirm that. +Let him look to medicine and put out all thought of unnatural causes here. There +be none. + +Susanna: Aye, sir. He bid me tell you. She turns to go. + +Abigail: Speak nothin’ of it in the village, Susanna. + +Parris: Go directly home and speak nothing of unnatural causes. + +Susanna: Aye, sir. 1 pray for her. She goes out. + +Abigail: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I thi nk + + + +10 + + +The Crucible + + +you’d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor’s packed with people, sir. I’ll sit +with her. + +Parris, pressed, turns on her: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter +and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest? + +Abigail: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it - and I’ll be +whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin’ of witch-craft. Betty’s not witched. + +Parris: Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I know you have not +opened with me. What did you do with her in the forest? + +Abigail: We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, +Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it. + +Parris: Child. Sit you down. + +Abigail, quavering, as she sits: I would never hurt Betty. I love her dearly. + +Parris; Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you +trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies +will, and they will ruin me with it. + +Abigail: But we never conjured spirits. + +Parris: Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is +desperate! Abigail lowers her eyes. It must come out - my enemies will bring it +out. Let me know what you done there. Abigail, do you understand that I have +many enemies? + +Abigail: I have heard of it, uncle. + +Parris: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you +understand that? + + +Abigail: I think so, sir. + + + +Act One + + +11 + + +Parris: Now then, in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to +be the very center of some obscene practice. Abominations are done in the forest - + +Abigail: It were sport, uncle! + +Parris, pointing at Betty: You call this sport? She lowers her eyes. He pleads: Abigail, +if you know something that may help the doctor, for God’s sake tell it to me. She is +silent. I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when 1 came on you. Why was she +doing that? And I heard a screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were +swaying like a dumb beast over that fire! + +Abigail: She always sings her Barbados songs, and we dance. + +Parris: I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a +dress lying on the grass. + +Abigail, innocently: A dress? + +Parris - it is very: hard to say: Aye, a dress. And 1 thought I saw - someone naked +running through the trees! + +Abigail, in terror: No one was naked! You mistake yourself, uncle! + +PARRIs, with anger: I saw it! He moves from her. Then, re-solved: Now tell me true, +Abigail. And I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you, for 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 1 dare not be taken unaware when I go before them +down there. + +Abigail: There is nothin’ more. 1 swear it, uncle. + +Parris, studies her, then nods, half convinced: Abigail, I have Sought 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 + + + +12 + + +The Crucible + + +given you a home, child, I have put clothes upon your back - now give me upright +answer. Your name in the town - it is en-tirely white, is it not? + +Abigail, with an edge of resentment: Why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about +my name. + +Parris, to the point: Abigail, is there any other cause than you have told me, for your +being discharged from Goody Proc-tor’s service? I have heard it said, and I tell you as I +heard it, that she comes so rarely to the 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! + +Parris: She may be. And yet it has troubled me that you are now seven month out of +their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service. + +Abigail: They want slaves, not such as I. Let them send to Barbados for that. I will not +black my face for any of them! With ill-concealed resentment at him: Do you begrudge +my bed, uncle? + +Parris: No - no. + +Abigail, in a temper: 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. She is a twisted soul of forty-five, a death-ridden woman, +haunted by dreams. + +Parris, as soon as the door begins to open: No - no, I cannot have anyone'. He sees her, +and a certain deference springs into him, although his worry > remains. Why, Goody +Putnam, come in. + +Mrs. Putnam, full of breath, shiny-eyed: It is a marvel. It is surely a stroke of hell upon +you. + + + +Act One Parris: No, Goody Putnam, it is - 13 + +Mrs. Putnam, glancing at Betty’ : How high did she fly, how high? + +Parris: No, no, she never flew - + +Mrs. Putnam, very > pleased with it: Why, it’s sure she did. Mr. Collins saw her +goin’ over Ingersoll’s bam, and come down light as bird, he says! + +Parris: Now, look you, Goody Putnam, she never - Enter Thomas Putnam , a +well-to-do, hard-handed landowner, near fifty. Oh, good morning, Mr. Putnam. + +Putnam: It is a providence the thing is out now! It is a provi-dence. He goes +directly to the bed. + +Parris: What’s out, sir, what’s - ? + +Mrs. Putnam goes to the bed. + +Putnam, looking down at Betty: Why, her eyes is closed! Look you, Ann. + +Mrs. Putnam: Why, that’s strange. To Parris: Ours is open. Parris, shocked: +Your Ruth is sick? + +Mrs. PuTNAM, with vicious certainty: 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 Ruth ail? + +Mrs. Putnam: 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. + +Parris is struck. + +PuTNAM, as though for further details: They say you’ve sent for Reverend +Hale of Beverly? + + + +14 + + +The Crucible + + +Parris, with dwindling conviction now: A precaution only. He has much experience in +all demonic-arts, and I - + +Mrs. Putnam: 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: Thomas, Thomas, 1 pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you - +you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. +We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such +corruption in my house. + +A word about Thomas Putnam. He was a man with many grievances, at least +one of which appears justified. Some time before, his wife’s brother-in-law, +James Bayley, had been turned down as minister of Salem. Bayley had all the +qualifications, and a two-thirds vote into the bargain, but a faction stopped his +acceptance, for reasons that are not clear. + +Thomas Putnam was the eldest son of the richest man in the village. He had +fought the Indians at Narragansett, and was deeply interested in parish affairs. +He undoubtedly felt it poor payment that the village should so blatantly +disregard his candi-date for one of its more important offices, especially since +he regarded himself as the intellectual superior of most of the people around +him. + +His vindictive nature was demonstrated long before the witch-craft began. +Another former Salem minister, George Burroughs, had had to borrow money +to pay for his wife’s funeral, and, since the parish was remiss in his salary, he +was soon bankrupt. Thomas and his brother John had Burroughs jailed for debts +the man did not owe. The incident is important only in that Burroughs +succeeded in becoming minister where Bayley, + + + +Act One + + +15 + + +Thomas Putnam’s brother-in-law, had been rejected; the motif of resentment is +clear here. Thomas Putnam felt that his own name and the honor of his family +had been smirched by the village, and he meant to right matters however he +could. + +Another reason to believe him a deeply embittered man was his attempt to +break his father’s will, which left a dispropor-tionate amount to a stepbrother. +As with every other public cause in which he tried to force his way, he failed in +this. + +So it is not surprising to find that so many accusations against people are in +the handwriting of Thomas Putnam, or that his name is so often found as a +witness corroborating the super-natural testimony, or that his daughter led the +crying-out at the most opportune junctures of the trials, especially when - But +we’ll speak of that when we come to it. + +Putnum - at the moment he is intent upon getting Parris, for whom he has only +contempt, to move toward the abyss: Mr. Parris, 1 have taken your part in all +contention here, and I would continue; but I cannot if you hold back in this. +There are hurtful, vengeful spirits layin’ hands on these children. + +Parris: But, Thomas, you cannot - + +Putnam: Ann! Tell Mr. Parris what you have done. + +MRs. Putnam: Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies un-baptized in the +earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born, And yet, each +would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin’, but +my heart has clamored intimations. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only - I +see 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 - ? + +Mrs. Putnam: Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mr. Parris. + + + +1 6 The Crucible + +Parris: Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the dead! + +Mrs. Putnam: 1 take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person +murdered my babies? + +Parris, horrified: Woman! + +MRs. Putnam: They were murdered, Mr. 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 struck dumb now except some power of darkness would stop her +mouth? It is a marvelous sign, Mr. Parris! + +Putnam: Don’t you understand it, sir? There is a murdering witch among us, +bound to keep herself in the dark. Parris turns to Betty, a frantic terror rising in +him. Let your enemies make of it what they will, you cannot blink it more. + +Parris, to Abigail: Then you were conjuring spirits last night. + +Abigail, whispering: Not I, sir - Tituba and Ruth. + +Parris turns now, with new fear, and goes to Betty, looks down at her, and then, +gazing off: Oh, Abigail, what proper payment for my charity! Now I am +undone. + +Putnam: You are not undone! Let you take hold here. Wait for no one to charge +you - declare it yourself. You have dis-covered witchcraft - + +Parris: In my house? In my house, Thomas? They will topple me with this! +They will make of it a - + +Enter Mercy Lewis, the Putnams’ servant, a fat, sly, merciless girl of eighteen. +Mercy: Your pardons. I only thought to see how Betty i + + +Putnam: Why aren’t you home? Who’s with Ruth? + + + +Act One + + +17 + + +Mercy: Her grandma come. She’s improved a little, I think - she give a powerful +sneeze before. + +Mrs. Putnam: Ah, there’s a sign of life! + +Mercy: I’d fear no more, Goody Putnam. It were a grand sneeze; another like it +will shake her wits together. I’m sure. She goes to the bed to look. + +Parris: Will you leave me now, Thomas? I would pray a while alone. + +Abigail: Uncle, you’ve prayed since midnight. Why do you not go down and - + +PARRis: No - no. To Putnam: I have no answer for that crowd. I’ll wait till Mr. +Hale arrives. To get Mrs. Putnam to leave: If you will, Goody Ann... + +PutnAM: Now look you, sir. Let you strike out against the Devil, and the village +will bless you for it! Come down, speak to them - pray with them. They’re +thirsting for your word. Mister! Surely you’ll pray with them. + +Parris, swayed: I’ll lead them in a psalm, but let you say nothing of witchcraft +yet. I will not discuss it. The cause is yet u nk nown. I have had enough +contention since I came; I want no more. + +Mrs. Putnam: Mercy, you go home to Ruth, d’y’hear? + +Mercy: Aye, mum. + +Mrs. Putnam goes out. + +Parris, to Abigail: If she starts for the window, cry for me at once. + +Abigail: I will, uncle. + +Orris, to Putnam: There is a terrible power in her arms to-day. He goes out with +Putnam. + + + +1 8 The Crucible + +Abigail, with hushed trepidation: How is Ruth sick? + +Mercy! It’s weirdish, I know not - she seems to walk like a dead one since last +night. + +Abigail, turns at once and goes to Betty, and now, with fear in her voice: Betty? +Betty doesn ’t move. She shakes her. Now stop this! Betty! Sit up now! + +Betty doesn ’t stir . Mercy comes over. + +Mercy: Have you tried heatin’ her? I gave Ruth a good one and it waked her for +a minute. Here, let me have her. + +Abigail, holding Mercy back: No, he’ll be cornin’ up. Listen, now; if they be +questioning us, tell them we danced - 1 told him as much already, + +Mercy: Aye. And what more? + +Abigail: He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave. +Mercy: And what more? + +Abigail: He saw you naked. + +Mercy: clapping her hands together with a frightened laugh: Oh, Jesus! + +Enter Man > Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a subservient, naive, lonely +girl. + +Mary Warren: What’ll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the +whole country’s talkin’ witchcraft! They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby! + +Mercy, pointing and looking at Maty Warren: She means to tell, I know it. + +Mary Warren: Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ +like they done in Boston two year ago! We + + + +Act One + + +19 + + +must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’, and the other things! + +Abigail: Oh, -we’ll be whipped! + +Mary Warren: I never done none of it, Abby. 1 only looked! + +Mercy, moving menacingly toward Mary: Oh, you’re a great one for lookin’, aren’t you, +Mary Warren? What a grand peeping courage you have! + +Betty, on the bed, whimpers. Abigail turns to her at once. + +Abigail: Betty? She goes to Betty. Now, Betty, dear, wake up now. It’s Abigail. She sits +Betty up and furiously shakes her. I’ll beat you, Betty! Betty whimpers. My, you seem +improving. I talked to your papa and I told him everything. So there’s nothing to - + +Betty, darts op the bed, frightened of Abigail, and flattens her-self against the wall: I +want my mama! + +ABIGAIL, with alarm, as she cautiously approaches Betty: What ails you, Betty? Your +mama’s dead and buried. + +Betty: I’ll fly to Mama. Let me fly! She raises her arms as though to fly, and streaks for +the window, gets one leg out. + +Abigail, pulling her away from the window: I told him every-thing,' he knows now, he +knows everything we - + +Betty: You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that! + +Abigail: Betty, you never say that again! You will never— + +Betty: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a +charm to kill Goody Proctor! + +Abigail, smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it! + +Barry, collapsing on the bed: Mama, Mama! She dissolves into sobs. + + + +20 + + +The Crucible + + +Abigail: Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s +dead sisters. And that is all. 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. And you know I can do +it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have +seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the +sun go down! She goes to Betty and roughly sits her up. Now, you - sit up and stop this' + +But Betty collapses in her hands and lies inert on the bed. + +Marry Warren, with hysterical fright, What’s got her? Abigail stares in fright at Betty. +Abby, she’s going to die! It’s a sin to conjure, and we - + +Abigail, starting for Mann I say shut it, Mary Warren! + +Enter John Proctor. On seeing him, Mary Warren leaps in fright, + +Proctor was a farmer in his middle thirties, He need not have been a partisan of any +faction in the town, but there is evidence to suggest that he had a sharp and biting way +with hypocrites. He was the kind of man - powerful of body, even-tempered, and not +easily led - who cannot refuse support to partisans with-out drawing their deepest +resentment. In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly - and a Proctor is +always marked for calumny therefore. + +But as we shall see, the steady manner he displays does not spring from an untroubled +soul. He is a sinner, a sinner not only against the moral fashion of the time, but against +his own vision of decent conduct. These people had no ritual for the washing away of +sins. It is another trait we inherited from them, and it has helped to discipline us as well +as to breed hypocrisy among us. Proctor, respected and even feared in Salem, has + + + +Act One + + +21 + + +come to regard himself as a kind of fraud. But no hint of this has yet appeared on the +surface, and as he enters from the crowded parlor below it is a man in his prime we see, +with a quiet confidence and an unexpressed, hidden force. Mary War-ren, his servant, +can barely speak for embarrassment and fear. + +Mary Warren: Oh! I’m just going home, Mr. Proctor. + +Proctor: Be you foolish, Mary Warren? Be you deaf? I for-bid you leave the +house, did I not? Why shall I pay you? I am looking for you more often than my +cows! + +Mary Warren: I only come to see the great doings in the world. + +Proctor: I’ll show you a great doin' on your arse one of these days. Now get you +home; my wife is waitin’ with your work! Trying to retain a shred of dignity, +she goes slowly out. + +Mercy Lewis, both afraid of him and strangely titillated: I’d best be off. I have +my Ruth to watch. Good morning, Mr. Proctor. + +Mercy sidles out. Since Proctor’s entrance, Abigail has stood as though on +tiptoe, absorbing his presence, wide-eyed. He glances at her, then goes to Betty +on the bed. + +Abigail: Gah! I’d almost forgot how strong you are, John Proctor! + +Proctor, looking at Abigail now, the faintest suggestion of a knowing smile on +his face: What’s this mischief here? + +Abigail, with a ner\’ous laugh: Oh, she’s only gone silly some-how. + +Proctor: The road past my house is a pilgrimage to Salem all morning. The +town’s mumbling witchcraft. + +Abigail: Oh, posh! Winningly she comes a little closer, with a + + + +22 + + +The Crucible + + +confidential, wicked air. We were dancin’ in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped +in on us. She took fright, is all. + +Proctor, his smile widening: Ah, you’re wicked yet, aren’t y’! A trill of +expectant laughter escapes her, and she dares come closer, feverishly looking +into his eyes. You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you’re twenty. + +He takes a step to go, and she springs into his path. + +Abigail: Give me a word, John. A soft word. Her concentrated desire destroys +his smile. + +Proctor: No, no, Abby. That’s done with. + +Abigail, tauntingly: You come five mile to see a silly girl fly? I know you +better. + +Proctor, setting her firmly out of his path: I come to see what mischief your +uncle’s brewin’ now. With final emphasis: Put it out of mind, Abby. + +Abigail, grasping his hand before he can release her: John - I am waitin’ for +you every night. + +Proctor: Abby, I never give you hope to wait for me. + +Abigail, now beginning to anger - she can ’t believe it: I have something better +than hope, I thi nk ! + +Proctor: Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be cornin’ for you more. +Abigail: You’re surely sportin’ with me. + +Proctor: Y ou know me better. + +Abigail: I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated +like a stallion whenever I come near! Or did I dream that? It’s she put me out, +you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you +loved me then and you do now! + + + +Act One + +Proctor: Abby, that’s a wild thing to say - + + +23 + + +Abigail: A wild thing may say wild things. But not so wild, I think. I have seen you +since she put me out; I have seen you nights. + +Proctor: I have hardly stepped off my farm this sevenmonth. + +Abigail: I have a sense for heat, John, and yours has drawn me to my window, +and I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness. Do you tell me +you’ve never looked up at my window? + +Proctor: I may have looked up. + +Abigail, now softening: And you must. You are no wintry man. I know you, +John. I know you. She is weeping. I cannot sleep for dreamin‘; I cannot dream +but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you cornin’ through +some door. She clutches him desperately. + +Proctor, gently pressing her from him, with great sympathy but firmly: Child - + +Abigail, with a pash of anger: How do you call me child! + +Proctor: Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my +hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never +touched, Abby. + +Abigail: Aye, but we did. + +Proctor: Aye, but we did not. + +Abigail, with a bitter anger: Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a +sickly wife be - + + +Proctor, angered - at himself as well: You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth! +Abigail: She is blackening my name in the village! She is tell- + + + +24 + + +The Cmcibie + + +ing lies about me! .She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn +you like a - + +Proctor, shaking her: Do you look for whippin’? + +A psalm is heard being sung below. + +Abigail, in tears : I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge +in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I +was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid +me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and +whatever sin it is, you love me yet! He turns abruptly to go out. She rushes to him. John, +pity me, pity me! + +The words “going up to Jesus’’ are heard in the psalm and Betty claps her ears +suddenly and whines loudly. + +Abigail: Betty? She hurries to Betty, who is now sitting up and screaming. Proctor goes +to Betty as Abigail is trying to pull her hands down, calling “Betty! ” + +Proctor, growing unnerved: What’s she doing? Girl, what ails you? Stop that wailing! + +The singing has stopped in the midst of this, and now Parris rushes in. + +Parris: What happened? What are you doing to her? Betty! He rushes to the bed, crying, +“Betty, Betty!” Mrs. Putnam enters, feverish with curiosity, and with her Thomas +Putnam and Mercy lewis. Parris, at the bed, keeps lightly slapping Betty ’s face, while +she moans and tries to get up. + +Abigail: She heard you singin’ and suddenly she’s up and screamin’. + +Mrs. Putnam: The psalm! The psalm! She cannot bear to hear the Lord’s name! + + + +Act One + + +25 + + +Parris: No. God forbid. Mercy, run to the doctor! Tell him what’s happened +here! Mercy Lewis rushes out. + +Mrs. Putnam: Mark it for a sign, mark it! + +Rebecca Nurse, seventy-two, enters. She is white-haired, leaning upon her +walking-stick. + +Putnam, pointing at the whimpering Betty: That is a notorious sign of witchcraft +afoot, Goody Nurse, a prodigious sign! + +Mrs. Putnam: My mother told me that! When they cannot bear to hear the name +of - + + +Parris, trembling: Rebecca, Rebecca, go to her, we’re lost. She suddenly cannot +bear to hear the Lord’s - + +Giles Corey, eighty-three, enters. He is knotted with muscle, canny, inquisitive, +and still powerful. + +Rebecca: There is hard sickness here, Giles Corey, so please to keep the quiet. + +GILEs: I’ve not said a word. No one here can testify I’ve said a word. Is she +going to fly again? I hear she flies. + +Putnam: Man, be quiet now! + +Everything is quiet. Rebecca walks across the room to the bed. Gentleness +exudes from her. Betty is quietly whimpering, eyes shut, Rebecca simply stands +over the child, who gradually quiets. + +And while they are so absorbed, we may put a word in for Rebecca. Rebecca +was the wife of Francis Nurse, who, from all accounts, was one of those men for +whom both sides of the argument had to have respect. He was called upon to +arbitrate disputes as though he were an unofficial judge, and Rebecca also +enjoyed the high opinion most people had for him. By the time of the delusion, +they had three hundred acres, and their children were settled in separate +homesteads within the same + + + +26 The Crucible + + +estate. However, Francis had originally rented the land, and one theory has it that, as he +gradually paid for it and raised hi: social status, there were those who resented his rise. + +Another suggestion to explain the systematic campaign against Rebecca, and +inferentially against Francis, is the land war he fought with his neighbors, one of whom +was a Putnam. This squabble grew to the proportions of a battle in the woods be-tween +partisans of both sides, and it is said to have lasted for two days. As for Rebecca herself, +the general opinion of her character was so high that to explain how anyone dared cry +her out for a witch - and more, how adults could bring them-selves to lay hands on her - +we must look to the fields and boundaries of that time. + +As we have seen, Thomas Putnam’s man for the Salem min-istry was Bayley. The +Nurse clan had been in the faction that prevented Bayley’ s taking office. In addition, +certain families allied to the Nurses by blood or friendship, and whose farms were +contiguous with the Nurse farm or close to it, combined to break away from the Salem +town authority and set up Tops-field, a new and independent entity whose existence was +re-sented by old Salemites. + +That the guiding hand behind the outcry was Putnam’s is, indicated by the fact that, as +soon as it began, this Topsfield-Nurse ’faction absented themselves from church in +protest and disbelief. It was Edward and Jonathan Putnam who signed the first +complaint against Rebecca; and Thomas Putnam’s little daughter was the one who fell +into a fit at the hearing and pointed to Rebecca as her attacker. To top it all, Mrs. +Putnam - who is now staring at the bewitched child on the bed - soon accused Rebecca’s +spirit of “tempting her to iniquity,” a charge that had more truth in it than Mrs. Putnam +could know, + +Mrs. Putnam, astonished: What have you done? + +Rebecca, in thought, now leaves the bedside and sits. + + + +Act One + + +27 + + +Parris, wondrous and relieved: What do you make of it, Rebecca? + +Putnam, eagerly: Goody Nurse, will you go to my Ruth and see if you can wake +her? + +Rebecca, sitting: I think she’ll wake in time. Pray calm your-selves. I have +eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all +through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil +bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she’ll wake when she tires of +it. A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you +must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back, + +Proctor: Aye, that’s the truth of it, Rebecca. + +Mrs. Putnam: This is no silly season, Rebecca. My Ruth is bewildered, +Rebecca; she cannot eat. + +Rebecca: Perhaps she is not hungered yet. To Parris: I hope you are not decided +to go in search of loose spirits, Mr. Parris. I’ve heard.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. + +Proctor: Then let you come out and call them wrong. Did you consult the +wardens before you called this minister to look for devils? + +Parris: He is not coming to look for devils! + +Proctor: Then what’s he coming for? + +Putnam: There be children dyin’ in the village, Mister! + +Proctor: I seen none dyin’. This society will not be a bag to swing around your +head, Mr. Putnam. To Parris: Did you call a meeting before you - ? + + + +28 + + +The Crucible + + +PuTNAM: I am sick of meetings; cannot the man turn his head without he have a +meeting? + +Proctor:, He may turn his head, but not to Hell! + +Rebecca: Pray, John, be calm. Pause. He defers to her. Mr. Parris, I thi nk you’d +best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ +again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year; I think we ought +rely on the doctor now, and good prayer. + +Mrs. Putnam: Rebecca, the doctor’s baffled! + +Rebecca: If so he is, then let us go to God for the cause of it. There is prodigious +danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame +ourselves and - + +PutNAM: How may we blame ourselves? I am one of nine sons; the Putnam +seed have peopled this province. And yet I have but one child left of eight - and +now she shrivels! + +Rebecca: I cannot fathom that. + +Mrs. Putnam, with a growing edge of sarcasm: But I must! You think it God’s +work you should never lose a child, nor grand-child either, and I bury all but +one? There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires! + +PuTNAM, to Parris: When Reverend Hale comes, you will pro-ceed to look for +signs of witchcraft here. + +Proctor, to Putnam: You cannot command Mr. Parris. We vote by name in this +society, not by acreage. + +Putnam: I never heard you worried so on this society, Mr. Proctor. I do not think +I saw you at Sabbath meeting since snow flew. + +Proctor: I have trouble enough without I come five mile to hear him preach only +hellfire and bloody damnation. Take it + + + +Act One + + +29 + + +to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days +because you hardly ever mention God any more. + +Parris, now aroused: Why, that’s a drastic charge! + +Rebecca: It’s somewhat true; there are many that quail to bring their children - + +Parris: I do not preach for children, Rebecca. It is not the children who are +unmindful of their obligations toward this ministry. + +Rebecca: Are there really those unmindful? + +Parris: I should say the better half of Salem village - + +PuTNAM: And more than that! + +Parris: Where is my wood? My contract provides I be supplied with all my +firewood. I am waiting since November for a stick, and even in November I had +to show my frostbitten hands like some London beggar! + +Giles: You are allowed six pound a year to buy your wood, Mr. Parris. + +Parris: I regard that six pound as part of my salary. I am paid little enough +without I spend six pound on firewood. + +Proctor: Sixty, plus six for firewood - + +PARRis: The salary is sixty-six pound, Mr. Proctor! I am not some preaching +farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College. + +Giles: Aye, and well instructed in arithmetic! + +Parris: Mr. Corey, you will look far for a man of my kind at sixty pound a year! +I am not used to this poverty; I left a thrifty business in the Barbados to serve +the Lord. I do not + + + +30 + + +The Crucible + + +fathom it, why am I persecuted here? I cannot offer one propo-sition but there be a +howling riot of argument. I have often wondered if the Devil be in it somewhere; I +cannot understand you people otherwise. + +Proctor: Mr. Parris, you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this +house - + +Parris: Man! Don’t a minister deserve a house to live in? + +Proctor: To live in, yes. But to ask ownership is like you shall own the meeting +house itself; the last meeting I were at you spoke so long on deeds and +mortgages I thought it were an auction. + +Parris: I want a mark of confidence, is all! I am your third preacher in seven +years. I do not wish to be put out like the cat whenever some majority feels the +whim. 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 contra-dieted - + +PutnAM: Aye! + +Parris: There is either obedience or the church will bum like Hell is burning! + +Proctor: Can you speak one minute without we land in Hell again? I am sick of +Hell! + +Parris: It is not for you to say what is good for you to hear! + +Proctor: I may speak my heart, I thi nk ! + +Parris, in a fury: What, are we Quakers? We are not Quakers here yet, Mr. +Proctor. And you may tell that to your followers! + +Proctor: My followers! + +PARRis - now he ’s out with it: There is a party in this church. 1 am not blind; +there is a faction and a party. + + + +31 + + +Act One + +Proctor: Against you? + +PuTNAM: Against him and all authority! + +PRoctoR: Why, then I must find it and join it. + +There is shock among the others. + +Rebecca: He does not mean that. + +Putnam: He confessed it now! + +Proctor: I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; 1 like not the smell of this “authority.” + +Rebecca: No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another +kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace. + +Proctor: I have a crop to sow and lumber to drag home. He goes angrily to the +door and turns to Corey with a smile. What say you, Giles, let’s find the party. +He says there’s a party. + +Giles: I’ve changed my opinion of this man, John. Mr. Parris, I beg your +pardon. I never thought you had so much iron in you. + +Parris, surprised: Why, thank you, Giles! + +Giles: It suggests to the mind what the trouble be among us all these years. To +all: Think on it. Wherefore is everybody suing everybody else? Think on it +now, it’s a deep thing, and dark as a pit. 1 have been six time in court this year - + +Proctor , familiarly , with warmth, although he knows he is approaching the edge +of Giles’ tolerance with this: Is it the Devil’s fault that a man cannot say you +good morning without you clap him for defamation? You’re old, Giles, and +you’re not hearin’ so well as you did. + +Giles - he cannot be crossed: John Proctor, I have only last month collected +four pound damages for you publicly sayin’ I burned the roof off your house, +and I - + + + +Act One Proctor: Against you? PutNAM: Against him and all authority! PRoctoR: Why, then I must find it and join it. +There is shock among the others. Rebecca: He does not mean that. Putnam: He confessed it now! 3 1 + + +Proctor: I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; 1 like not the smell of this “authority.” + +Rebecca: No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another +kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace. + +Proctor: 1 have a crop to sow and lumber to drag home. He goes angrily to the +door and turns to Corey with a smile. What say you, Giles, let’s find the party. +He says there’s a party. + +Giles: I’ve changed my opinion of this man, John. Mr. Parris, I beg your +pardon. I never thought you had so much iron in you. + +Parris, Surprised: Why, thank you, Giles! + +Giles: It suggests to the mind what the trouble be among us all these years. To +all: Think on it. Wherefore is everybody suing everybody else? Think on it +now, it’s a deep thing, and dark as a pit. I have been six time in court this year - + +Proctor, familiarly, with warmth, although he knows he is approaching the edge +of Giles’ tolerance with this: Is it the Devil’s fault that a man cannot say you +good morning without you clap him for defamation? You’re old, Giles, and +you’re not hearin’ so well as you did. + +GILEs - he cannot be crossed: John Proctor, I have only last month collected +four pound damages for you publicly sayin’ I burned the roof off your house, +and I - + + + +32 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor, laughing: I never said no such thing, but I’ve paid you for it, so I hope I can call you +deaf without charge. Now come along, Giles, and help me drag my lumber home. + +PuTNAM: A moment, Mr. Proctor. What lumber is that you’re draggin’, if I may ask +you? + +Proctor: My lumber. From out my forest by the riverside. + +Putnam: Why, we are surely gone wild this year. What anarchy is this? That tract is in +my bounds, it’s in my bounds, Mr. Proctor. + +Proctor: In your bounds! indicating Rebecca: I bought that tract from Goody Nurse’s +husband five months ago. + +PuTNAM: He had no right to sell it. It stands clear in my grand-father’s will that all the +land between the river and - + +Proctor: Y our grandfather had a habit of willing land that never belonged to him, if I +may say it plain. + +Giles: That’s God’s truth; he nearly willed away my north pasture but he knew I’d break +his fingers before he’d set his name to it. Let’s get your lumber home, John. I feel a +sudden will to work coming on. + +Putnam: You load one oak of mine and you’ll fight to drag it home! + +GiLEs: Aye, and we’ll win too, Putnam - this fool and I. Come on! He turns to Proctor +and starts out. + +Putnam: I’ll have my men on you, Corey! I’ll clap a writ on you! + +Enter Reverend John Hale of Beverly. + +Mr. Hale is nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intel-lectual. This is a beloved +errand for him; on being called here + + + +Act One + + +33 + + +to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique +knowledge has at last been publicly called for. Like almost all men of learning, +he spent a good deal of his time pondering the invisible world, especially since +he had himself encountered a witch in his parish not long before. That woman, +however, turned into a mere pest under his searching scrutiny, and the child she +had allegedly been afflicting recovered her normal behavior after Hale had +given her his kindness and a few days of rest in his own house. However, that +experience never raised a doubt in his mind as to the reality of the under-world +or the existence of Lucifer’s many-faced lieutenants. And his belief is not to his +discredit. Better minds than Hale’s were - and still are - convinced that there is a +society of spirits beyond our ken. One cannot help noting that one of his lines +has never yet raised a laugh in any audience that has seen this play; it is his +assurance that “,We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise.” +Evidently we are not quite certain even now whether diabolism is holy and not +to be scoffed at. And it is no accident that we should be so bemused. + +Like Reverend Hale and the others on this stage, we conceive the Devil as a +necessary part of a respectable view of cosmology. Ours is a divided empire in +which certain ideas and emotions and actions are of God, and their opposites are +of Lucifer. It is as impossible for most men to conceive of a morality without +sin as of an earth without “sky.” Since 1692 a great but super- ficial change has +wiped out God’s beard and the Devil’s horns, but the world is still gripped +between two diametrically opposed absolutes. The concept of unity, in which +positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good and evil +are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenom-enon - such +a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences and to the few who have +grasped the history of ideas. When it is recalled that until the Christian era the +underworld was never regarded as a hostile area, that all gods were useful and +es-sentially friendly to man despite occasional lapses; when we + + + +34 + + +The Crucible + + +see the steady and methodical inculcation into humanity of the idea of man’s +worthlessness - until redeemed - the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a +weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into +a surrender to a particular church or church-state. + +Our difficulty in believing the - for want of a better word - political inspiration of the +Devil is due in great part to the fact that he is called up and damned not only by our +social antagonists but by our own side, whatever it may be. The Catholic Church, +through its Inquisition, is famous for culti-vating Lucifer as the arch-fiend, but the +Church’s enemies relied no less upon the Old Boy to keep the human mind enthralled. +Luther was himself accused of alliance with Hell, and he in turn accused his enemies. +To complicate matters further, he believed that he had had contact with the Devil and +had argued theology with him. I am not surprised at this, for at my own university a +professor of history - a Lutheran, by the way - used to as-semble his graduate students, +draw the shades, and commune in the classroom with Erasmus. He was never, to my +knowledge, officially scoffed at for this, the reason being that the university officials, +like most of us, are the children of a history which still sucks at the Devil’s teats. At this +writing, only England has held back before the temptations of contemporary diabolism. +In the countries of the Communist ideology, all resistance of any import is linked to the +totally malign capitalist succubi, and in America any man who is not reactionary in his +views is open to the charge of alliance with the Red hell. Political opposition, thereby, is +given an inhumane overlay which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied +customs of civilized inter-course. A political policy is equated with moral right, and +opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is effectively made, +society becomes a congerie of plots and counterplots, and the main role of government +changes from that of the arbiter to that of the scourge of God. + +The results of this process are no different now from what + + + +Act One + + +35 + + +they ever were, except sometimes in the degree of cruelty inflicted, and not always even +in that department. Normally the actions and deeds of a man were all that society felt +com-fortable in judging, The secret intent of an action was left to the ministers, priests, +and rabbis to deal with. When diabolism rises, however, actions are the least important +manifests of the true nature of a man. The Devil, as Reverend Hale said, is a wily one, +and, until an hour before he fell, even God thought him beautiful in Heaven. + +The analogy, however, seems to falter when one considers that, while there were no +witches then, there are Communists and capitalists now, and in each camp there is +certain proof that spies of each side are at work undermining the other. But this is a +snobbish objection and not at all warranted by the facts. I have no doubt that people +were communing with, and even worshiping, the Devil in Salem, and if the whole truth +could be known in this case, as it is in others, we should dis-cover a regular and +conventionalized' propitiation of the dark spirit, One certain evidence of this is the +confession of Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, and another is the behavior of the, +children who were known to have indulged in sorceries with her. + +There are accounts of similar klatches in Europe, where the daughters of the towns +would assemble at night and, sometimes with fetishes, sometimes with a selected young +man, give them-selves to love, with some bastardly results. The Church, shaip-eyed as it +must be when gods long dead are brought to life, condemned these orgies as witchcraft +and interpreted them, rightly, as a resurgence of the Dionysiac forces it had crushed long +before. Sex, sin, and the. Devil were early linked, and so they continued to be in Salem, +and are today. From all accounts there are no more puritanical mores in the world than +those enforced by the Communists in Russia, where women’s fashions, for instance, are +as prudent and all-covering as any American Baptist would desire. The divorce laws lay +a tremendous re-sponsibility on the father for the care of his children. Even the + + + +36 The Crucible + + +laxity of divorce regulations in the early years of the revolution was undoubtedly a revulsion +from the nineteenth-century Vic-torian immobility of marriage and the consequent hypocrisy +that developed from it. If for no other reasons, a state so power-fill, so jealous of the uniformity +of its citizens, cannot long toler-ate the atomization of the family. And yet, in American eyes at +least, there remains the conviction that the Russian attitude toward women is lascivious. It is the +Devil working again, just as he is working within the Slav who is shocked at the very idea of a +woman’s disrobing herself in a burlesque show. Our opposites are always robed in sexual sin, +and it is from this unconscious conviction that demonology gains both its attractive sensuality +and its capacity to infuriate and frighten. + +Coming into Salem now, Reverend Hale conceives of himself much as a young doctor on his +first call. His painfully acquired armory of symptoms, catchwords, and diagnostic procedures +are now to be put to use at last. The road from Beverly is unusually busy this morning, and he +has passed a hundred rumors that make him smile at the ignorance of the yeomanry in this most +precise science. He feels himself allied with the best minds of Europe - kings, philosophers, +scientists, and ecclesiasts of all churches. His goal is light, goodness and its preservation, and he +knows the exaltation of the blessed whose intelligence, sharpened by minute examinations of +enormous tracts, is finally called upon to face what may be a bloody fight with the Fiend +himself. + +He appears loaded down with half a dozen heavy books. Hale: Pray you, someone take +these! + +. Parris, delighted: Mr. Hale! Oh! it’s good to see you again! + +Taking some books: My, they’re heavy! + +Hale, setting down his books: They must be; they are weighted with authority. + + + +Act One Parris, a little scared: Well, you do come prepared! 37 + +Hale: We shall need hard study if it comes to tracking down the Old Boy. Noticing +Rebecca: You cannot be Rebecca Nurse? + +Rebecca: I am, sir. Do you know me? + +Hale: It’s strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul +should. We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly. + +Parris: Do you know this gentleman? Mr. Thomas Putnam. And his good wife +Ann. + +Hale: Putnam! I had not expected such distinguished company, + +sir. + + +Putnam, pleased: It does not seem to help us today, Mr. Hale. We look to you to +come to our house and save our child. + +Hale: Your child ails too? + +Mrs. Putnam: Her soul, her soul seems flown away. She sleeps and yet she +walks... + +PutNAM: She cannot eat. + +Hale: Cannot eat! Thinks on it, Then, to Proctor and Giles Corey: Do you men +have addicted children? + +Parris: No, no, these are farmers. John Proctor - +Giles Corey: He don’t believe in witches. + +Proctor, to Hale: I never spoke on witches one way or the other. Will you come, +Giles? + +Giles: No - no, John, I thi nk not. I have some few queer questions of my own to +ask this fellow. + + +Proctor: I’ve heard you to be a sensible man, Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some +of it in Salem. + + + +38 The Crucible + +Proctor goes. Hale stands embarrassed for an instant. + +Parris, quickly: Will you look at my daughter, sir? Leads Hale to the bed. She has tried +to leap out the window; we discovered her this morning on the highroad, waving her +arms as though she’d fly. + +Hale, narrowing his eyes. Tries to fly. + +Putnam: She cannot bear to hear the Lord’s name, Mr. Hale; that’s a sure sign of +witchcraft afloat. + +Hale, holding up his hands: No, no. Now let me instruct you. We cannot look to +superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone, +and I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I +should find no bruise of hell upon her. + +Parris: It is agreed, sir - it is agreed - we will abide by your judgment. + +Hale: Good then. He goes to the bed, looks down at Betty:. To Parris: Now, sir, what +were your first warning of this strange-ness? + +Parris: Why, sir - 1 discovered her - indicating Abigail - and my niece and ten or twelve +of the other girls, dancing in the forest last night. + +Hale, surprised: You permit dancing? + +Parris: No, no, it were secret - + +MRs. Putnam, unable to wait: Mr. Parris’s slave has knowledge of conjurin’, sir. + +Parris, to Mrs. Putnam: We cannot be sure of that, Goody Ann - + +Mrs. Putnam, frightened, very ? softly: I know it, sir. I sent my child - she should learn +from Tituba who murdered her sisters. + + + +Act One + +Parris, a little scared: Well, you do come prepared! + + +37 + + +Hale: We shall need hard study if it comes to tracking down the Old Boy. Noticing Rebecca: You +cannot be Rebecca Nurse? + +Rebecca: I am, sir. Do you know me? + +Hale: It’s strange how I knew you, but 1 suppose you look as such a good soul should. +We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly. + +Parris: Do you know this gentleman? Mr. Thomas Putnam. And his good wife Ann. +Hale: Putnam! I had not expected such distinguished company, + + +Putnam, pleased, It does not seem to help us today, Mr. Hale. We look to you to come +to our house and save our child. + +Hale: Your child ails too? + +MRs. Putnam: Her soul, her soul seems flown away. She sleeps and yet she walks... +Putnam: She cannot eat. + +Hale: Cannot eat! Thinks on it. Then, to Proctor and Giles Corey: Do you men have +afflicted children? + +Parris: No, no, these are farmers. John Proctor - +Giles Corey: He don’t believe in witches. + +Proctor to Hale: I never spoke on witches one way or the other. Will you come, Giles? + +Giles: No - no, John, I think not. I have some few queer questions of my own to ask this +fellow. + +Proctor: I’ve heard you to be a sensible man, Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some of it in +Salem. + + + +38 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor goes. Hale stands embarrassed for an instant. + +Parris, quickly: Will you look at my daughter, sir? Leads Hale to the bed. She has tried +to leap out the window; we discovered her this morning on the highroad, waving her +arms as though she’d fly. + +Hale, narrowing his eyes: Tries to fly. + +Putnam: She cannot bear to hear the' Lord’s name, Mr. Hale; that’s a sure sign of +witchcraft afloat. + +Hale, holding up his hands: No, no. Now let me instruct you. We cannot look to +superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone, +and I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I +should find no bruise of hell upon her. + +Parris: It is agreed, sir - it is agreed - we will abide by your judgment. + +Hale: Good then. He goes to the bed, looks down at Betty. To Parris: Now, sir, what +were your first warning of this strange-ness? + +Parris: Why, sir - 1 discovered her - indicating Abigail - and my niece and ten or twelve +of the other girls, dancing in the forest last night. + +Hale, surprised: You permit dancing? + +Parris: No, no, it were secret - + +Mrs. Putnam, unable to wait: Mr. Parris’s slave has knowledge of conjurin’, sir. + +Parris, to Mrs. Putnam: We cannot be sure of that, Goody Ann - + +Mrs. Putnam, frightened, very: softly: 1 know it, sir. I sent my child - she should learn +from Tituba who murdered her sisters. + + + +Act One + + +39 + + +Rebecca horrified: Goody Ann! You sent a child to conjure up the dead? + +Mrs. Putnam: Let God blame me, not you, not you, Rebecca! I’ll not have you +judging me any more! To Hale: Is it a natural work to lose seven children +before they live a day? + +Parris: Sssh! + +Rebecca, with great pain, turns her face away. There is a pause. + +Hale: Seven dead in childbirth. + +Mrs. Putnam, softly: Aye. Her voice breaks; she looks up at him. Silence. Hale +is impressed. Parris looks to him. He goes to his books, opens one, turns pages, +then reads. All wait, avidly. + +Parris, hushed: What book is that? + +Mrs. Putnam: What's there, sir? + +Hale, with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit: Here is all the invisible world, +caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all +his brute disguises. Here are all your familiar spirits - your incubi and succubi; +your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and +of the day. Have no fear now - we shall find him out if he has come among us, +and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face! He starts for the bed. + +Rebecca: Will it hurt the child, sir? + +Hale: I cannot tell. If she is truly in the Devil’s grip we may have to rip and tear +to get her free. + +REBECCA: I think I’ll go, then. I am too old for this. She rises. + +Parris, striving for conviction: Why, Rebecca, we may open up the boil of all +our troubles today! + +Rebecca: Let us hope for that. I go to God for you, sir. + + + +40 + + +The Crucible + + +Parris, with trepidation - and resentment: I hope you do not mean we go to +Satan here! Slight pause. + +Rebecca: I wish 1 knew. She goes out; they feel resentful of her note of moral +superiority. + +PuTNAM, abruptly: Come, Mr. Hale, let’s get on. Sit you here. + +Giles: Mr. Hale, I have always wanted to ask a learned man - what signifies the +readin’ of strange books? + +Hale: What books? + +Giles: I cannot tell; she hides them, Hale; Who does +this? + +Giles: Martha, my wife. I have waked at night many a time and found her in a +comer, readin’ of a book. Now what do you make of that? + +Hale: Why, that’s not necessarily - + +Giles: It discomfits me! Last night - mark this - I tried and tried and could not +say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and +suddenly - mark this - 1 could pray again! + +Old Giles must be spoken for, if only because his fate was to be so +remarkable and so different from that of all the others. He was in his early +eighties at this time, and was the most comical hero in the history. No man has +ever been blamed for so much. If a cow was missed, the first thought was to +look for her around Corey’s house; a fire blazing up at night brought sus-picion +of arson to his door. He didn’t give a hoot for public opinion, and only in his +last years - after he had married Martha - did he bother much with the church. +That she stopped his prayer is very probable, but he forgot to say that he’d only +recently learned any prayers and it didn’t take much to make him stumble over +them. He was a crank and a nuisance, but + + + +Act One + + +41 + + +withal a deeply innocent and brave man. In court once he was asked if it were +true that he had been frightened by the strange behavior of a hog and had then +said he knew it to be the Devil in an animal’s shape. “What frighted you?” he +was asked. He forgot everything but the word “frighted,” and instantly replied, +“I do not know that I ever spoke that word in my life,” + +Hale: Ah! The stoppage of prayer - that is strange. I’ll speak further on that with +you. + +Giles: I’m not sayin’ she’s touched the Devil, now, but I’d admire to know what +books she reads and why she hides them. ' She’ll not answer me , y ’ see. + +Hale: Aye, we’ll discuss it. To all: 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. Mr. Putnam, stand close in case she flies. Now, Betty, dear, will you sit +up? Putnam comes in closer, ready-handed. Hale sits Betty up, but she hangs +limp in his hands. Hmmm. He observes her carefully. The others watch +breathlessly. Can you hear me? I am John Hale, minister of Beverly. I have +come to help you, dear. Do you remember my two little girls in Beverly? She +does not stir in his hands. + +Parris, in fright: How can it be the Devil? Why would he choose my house to +strike? We have all manner of licentious . people in the village! + +Hale: What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the +best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister? + +Giles: That’s deep, Mr, Parris, deep, deep! + +Paaris, with resolution now: Betty! Answer Mr. Hale! Betty! Hale: Does +someone afflict you, child? It need not be a woman, mind you, or a man. +Perhaps some bird invisible to others comes to you - perhaps a pig, a mouse, or +any beast at all. Is there + + + +42 + + +The Crucible + + +some figure bids you fly? The child remains limp in his hands. In silence he lays her back on the +pillow Now, holding out his hands toward her, he intones: In nomine Domini Sabaoth sui filiique +ite ad infernos. She does not stir. He turns to Abigail, his eyes narrowing. Abigail, what sort of +dancing were you doing with her in the forest? + +Abigail: Why - common dancing is all. + +Parris: I think I ought to say that 1 - 1 saw a kettle in the grass where they were dancing. +Abigail: That were only soup. + +Hale: What sort of soup were in this kettle, Abigail? + +Abigail: Why, it were beans - and lentils, I think, and - + +Hale: Mr. Parris, you did not notice, did you, any living thing in the kettle? A mouse, +perhaps, a spider, a frog - ? + +Parris, fearfully: I - do believe there were some movement - in the soup. + +Abigail: That jumped in, we never put it in! + +Hale, quickly: What jumped in? + +Abigail: Why, a very little frog jumped - +Parris: A frog, Abby! + +Hale, grasping Abigail: Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying. Did you call the Devil +last night? + +Abigail: I never called him! Tituba, Tituba... + +Parris, blanched: She called the Devil? + +Hale: I should like to speak with Tituba, + +Parris: Goody Ann, will you bring her up? Mrs, Putnam exits. + +Hale: How did she call him? + + + +Act One + +Abigail: I know not - she spoke Barbados. + + +43 + + +Hale: Did you feel any strangeness when she called him? A sudden cold wind, perhaps? +A trembling below the ground? + +Abigail: I didn’t see no Devil! Shaking Betty: Betty, wake up. Betty! Betty! + +Hale: You cannot evade me, Abigail. Did your cousin drink any of the brew in +that kettle? + +Abigail: She never drank it! + +Hale: Did you drink it? + +Abigail: No, sir! + +Hale ". Did Tituba ask you to drink it? + +Abigail: She tried, but I refused. + +Hale: Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer? + +Abigail: I never sold myself! I’m a good girl! I’m a proper girl! Mrs. Putnam +enters with Tituba, and instantly Abigail points at Tituba. + +Abigail: She made me do it! She made Betty do it! + +TiTUBA, shocked and angry: Abby! + +Abigail: She makes me drink blood! + +Parris: Blood!! + +Mrs. Putnam: My baby’s blood? + +TiTUBA: No, no, chicken blood. I give she chicken blood! + +Hale: Woman, have you enlisted these children for the Devil? + +TiTUBA: No, no, sir, I don’t truck with no Devil! + +Hale: Why can she not wake? Are you silencing this child? + + + +44 The Crucible +TiTUBA: I love me Betty! + +Hale; You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering +souls for the Devil? + +Abigail: She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer! + +Parris: She have often laughed at prayer! + +Abigail: She comes to me every night to go and drink blood! + +TiTUBA: You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm - + +Abigail: Don’t lie! To Hale: She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me +dream corruptions! + +TiTUBA: Why you say that, Abby? + +Abigail: Sometimes I wake and find myself standing in the open doorway and not a + +stitch on my body! I always hear her laughing in my sleep. I hear her singing her + +Barbados songs and tempting me with - + +TiTUBA: Mister Reverend, I never - + +Hale, resolved now: Tituba, I want you to wake this child. + +TiTUBA: I have no power on this child, sir. + +Hale: You most certainly do, and you will free her from it now! When did you compact +with the Devil? + +Tituba: I don’t compact with no Devil! + +Parris: You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, +Tituba! + +PuTNAM: This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged! + + +Tituba, terrified, falls to her knees: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! 1 tell him I don’t desire +to work for him, sir. + + + +Parris: The Devil? + + +Act One + + +45 + + +Hale: Then you saw him! Tituba weeps. Now Tituba, I know that when we bind +ourselves to Hell it is very hard to break with it. We are going to help you tear yourself +free - + +Tituba, frightened by the coming process: Mister Reverend, I do believe +somebody else be witchin’ these children. + +Hale: Who? + +Tituba: 1 don’t know, sir, but the Devil got him numerous witches. + +Hale: Does he! It is a clue. Tituba, look into my eyes. Come, look into me. She +raises her eyes to his fearfully. You would be a good Christian woman, would +you not, Tituba? + +TiTUBA: Aye, sir, a good Christian woman. + +Hale: And you love these little children? + +Tituba: Oh, yes, sir, 1 don’t desire to hurt little children. + +Hale: And you love God, Tituba? + +TiTUBA: I love God with all my bein’. + +Hale: Now, in God’s holy name - + +Tituba: Bless Him. Bless Him. She is rocking on her kness, sobbing in terror. + +Hale: And to His glory - + +Tituba: Eternal glory. Bless Him - bless God... + +Hale: Open yourself, Tituba - open yourself and let, God’s holy light shine on +you. + +TiTUBA: Oh, bless the Lord. + +Hale: When the Devil comes to you does he ever come - with another person? +She stares up into his face, Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you +know. + + +Parris: Who came with him? + + + +46 The Crucible + +Putnam: Sarah Good? Did you ever see Sarah Good with him? Or Osbum? + +Parris: Was it man or woman came with him? + +TiTUBA: Man or woman. Was - was woman. + +Parris: What woman? A woman, you said. What woman? + +TiTUBA: It was black dark, and I - + +PaRRis: You could see him, why could you not see her? + +Tituba: Well, they was always talking; they was always runnin’ round and +carryin’ on - + +Parris: You mean out of Salem? Salem witches? + +TiTUBA: I believe so, yes, sir. + +Now Hale takes her hand. She is surprised. + +Hale: Tituba. You must have no fear to tell us who they are, do you understand? +We will protect you. The Devil can never overcome a minister. You know that, +do you not? + +Tituba, kisses Hale ’s hand: Aye, sir, oh, I do. + +Hale: You have confessed yourself to witchcraft, and that speaks a wish to come +to Heaven’s side. And we will bless you, Tituba. + +Tituba, deeply relieved: Oh, God bless you, Mr. Hale! + +Hale, with rising exaltation: You are God’s instrument put in our hands to +discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen +to help us cleanse our village. So speak utterly, Tituba, turn your back on him +and face God - face God, Tituba, and God will protect you. + +TITUBA, joining with him: Oh, God, protect Tituba! + +Hale, kindly: Who came to you with the Devil? Two? Three? Four? How many? + + + +Act One + + +47 + + +Tituba pants, and begins rocking back and forth again, staring ahead. + +Tituba: There was four. There was four. + +Parris, pressing in on her: Who? Who? Their names, their names! + +Tituba, suddenly bursting out: Oh, how many times he bid me .kill you, Mr. +Parris! + +Parris: Kill me! + +TiTUBA, in a fury: He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, +Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and +cut your throat! They gasp. But I tell him “No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t +want kill that man.” But he say, “You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free! +I give you pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you +gone fly back to Barbados!” And 1 say, “You lie, Devil, you lie!” And then he +come one stormy night to me, and he say, “Look! I have white people belong to +me.” And I look - and there was Goody Good. + +Parris: Sarah Good! + +TiTUBA, rocking and weeping: Aye, sir, and Goody Osbum. + +Mrs. Putnam: I knew it! Goody Osbum were midwife to me three times. I +begged you, Thomas, did I not? 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. How can you bear to see +this child suffering? Look at her, Tituba. He is indicating Betty on the bed. Look +at her God-given innocence; her soul is so tender; we must protect her, Tituba; +the Devil is out and preying on her like a beast upon the mesh of the pure lamb. +God will bless you for your help. + + + +48 The Crucible + +Abigail rises, staring as though inspired, and cries out. + + +' Abigail: I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though +in a pearly light. I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! 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 with the Devil! I saw Goody Osbum with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop +with the Devil! + +As she is speaking, Betty is rising from the bed, a fever in her eyes, and picks up the +chant. + +Betty, staring too: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the +Devil! + +Parris: She speaks! He rushes to embrace Betty. She speaks! Hale: Glory to God! It is +broken, they are free! + +Betty, calling out hysterically and with great relief: I saw Martha Bellows with the +Devil! + +Abigail: I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil! It is rising to o great glee. + +PutNAM: The marshal, I’ll call the marshal! + +Parris is shouting a prayer of thanksgiving. + +BETTY : I saw Alice Barrow with the Devil ! + +The curtain begins to fall. + +Hale, as Putnam goes out: Let the marshal bring irons! + +Abigail: I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil! + +BeTTY : I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil! + +Abigail: I saw Goody Booth with the Devil! + +On their ecstatic cries + +THE CURTAIN FALLS + + + +ACT TWO + + +The common room of Proctor ’s house, eight days later. + +At the right is a door opening on the fields outside. A fireplace is at the left, and behind +it a stairway leading upstairs. It is the low, dark, and rather long living room of the +time. As the curtain rises, the room is empty. From above, Elizabeth is heard softly +singing to the children. Presently the door opens and John Proctor enters, carrying his +gun. He glances about the room as he comes toward the fireplace, then halts for an +instant as he hears her singing. He continues on to the fireplace, leans the gun against +the wall as he swings a pot out of the fire and smells it. Then he lifts out the ladle and +tastes. He is not quite pleased. He reaches to a cupboard, takes a pinch of salt, and +drops it into the pot. As he is tasting again, her footsteps are heard on the stair. He +swings the pot into the fireplace and goes to a basin and washes his hands and face, +Elizabeth enters. + +Elizabeth: What keeps you so late? It’s almost dark. + +Proctor: I were planting far out to the forest edge. Elizabeth: Oh, you’re done +then. + +Proctor: Aye, the farm is seeded. The boys asleep? + +49 + + + +50 + + +The Crucible + + +Elizabeth: They will be soon. And she goes to the fireplace, proceeds to ladle up stew in +a dish. + +Proctor: Pray now for a fair summer. + +Elizabeth: Aye. + +Proctor: Are you well today? + +Elizabeth: I am. She brings the plate to the table, and, indi-cating the food:. It is +a rabbit. + +Proctor, going to the table: Oh, is it! In Jonathan’s trap? + +Elizabeth: No, she walked into the house this afternoon; I found her sittin’ in the +comer like she come to visit. + +Proctor: Oh, that’s a good sign walkin’ in. + +Elizabeth: Pray God. It hurt my heart to strip her, poor rabbit. She sits and +watches him taste it. + +Proctor: It’s well seasoned. + +Elizabeth, blushing with pleasure: I took great care. She’s tender? + +Proctor: Aye. He eats. She watches him. I think we’ll see green fields soon. It’s +warm as blood beneath the clods. + +Elizabeth: That’s well. + +Proctor eats, then looks up. + +Proctor: If the crop is good I’ll buy George Jacob’s heifer. How would that +please you? + +Elizabeth: Aye, it would. + +Proctor, with a grin: I mean to please you, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth - it is hard to say: I know it, John. + +He gets up, goes to her, kisses her. She receives it. With a certain +disappointment, he returns to the table. + + + +Act Two Proctor, as gently as he can: Cider? + + +51 + + +Elizabeth, with a sense of reprimanding herself for having forgot: Aye! She gets up and +goes and pours a glass for him. He now arches his back. + +Proctor: This farm’s a continent when you go foot by foot droppin’ seeds in it. + +Elizabeth, coming with the cider: It must be. + +Proctor, drinks a long draught, then, putting the glass down: Y ou ought to bring some +flowers in the house. + +Elizabeth: Oh! I forgot! I will tomorrow. + +Proctor: It’s winter in here yet. On Sunday let you come with me, and we’ll walk the +farm together; 1 never see such a load of flowers on the earth. With good feeling he goes +and looks up at the sk y through the open doorway. Lilacs have a purple smell. Lilac is +the smell of nightfall, I think. Massachusetts is a beauty in the spring! + +Elizabeth: Aye, it is. + +There is a pause. She is watching him from the table as he stands there absorbing the +night. It is as though she would speak but cannot. Instead, now, she takes up his plate +and glass and fork and goes with them to the basin. Her back is turned to him. He turns +to her and watches her. A sense of their separation rises. + +Proctor: I think you’re sad again. Are you? + +Elizabeth - she doesn ’t want friction, and yet she must: You come so late I thought +you’d gone to Salem this afternoon. + +Proctor: Why? I have no business in Salem. + +Elizabeth: You did speak of going, earlier this week. Proctor - he knows what she +means: I thought better of it since. + + + +52 + + +The Crucible + + +Elizabeth: Mary Warren’s there today, + +Proctor: Why’d you let her? You heard me forbid her go to Salem any morel +Elizabeth: I couldn’t stop her. + +Proctor, holding back a full condemnation of her: It is a fault, it is a fault, +Elizabeth - you’re the mistress here, not Mary Warren. + +Elizabeth: She frightened all my strength away. + +Proctor: How may that mouse frighten you, Elizabeth? You - + +Elizabeth: It is a mouse no more. I forbid her go, and she raises up her chin like +the daughter of a prince and lays to me, “I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor; I +am an official of the court!” + +Proctor: Court! What court? + +Elizabeth: Aye, it is a proper court they have now. 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. + +PRoCTOR, astonished: Why, she’s mad. + +Elizabeth: I would to God she were. There be fourteen people in the jail now, +she says. Proctor simply looks at her, unable to grasp it. And they’ll be tried, +and the court have power to hang them too, she says. + +Proctor, scoffing, but without conviction: Ah, they’d never hang - + +Elizabeth: The Deputy Governor promise hangin’ if they’ll not confess, John. +The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a +saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she +walks the + + + +Act Two + + +53 + + +crowd will part like the sea for Israel. And folks are brought before them, and if +they scream and howl and fall to the floor - the person’s clapped in the jail for +bewitchin’ them. + +Proctor, wide-eyed: Oh, it is a black mischief. + +Elizabeth: I think you must go to Salem, John. He turns to her. I think so. You +must tell them it is a fraud. + +Proctor, thinking beyond this: Aye, it is, it is surely. + +Elizabeth: Let you go to Ezekiel Cheever - he knows you well. And tell him +what she said to you last week in her uncle’s house. She said it had naught to do +with witchcraft, did she not? + +Proctor, in thought: Aye, she did, she did. Now, a pause. + +Elizabeth, quietly, fearing to anger him by prodding: God for-bid you keep that +from the court, John. I think they must be told. + +Proctor, quietly, struggling with his thought: Aye, they must, they must. It is a +wonder they do believe her. + +Elizabeth: I would go to Salem now, John - let you go tonight. + +Proctor: I’ll think on it. + +Elizabeth, with her courage now: You cannot keep it, John, + +Proctor, angering: I know I cannot keep it. I say I will think on it! + +Elizabeth, hurt, and very coldly: Good, then, let you think on it. She stands and +starts to walk out of the room. + +Proctor: I am only wondering how I may prove what she told me, Elizabeth. If +the girl’s a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she’s fraud, and the town +gone so silly. She told it to me in a room alone - 1 have no proof for it. + + +Elizabeth: Y ou were alone with her? + + + +54 The Crucible + +Proctor, stubbornly: For a moment alone, aye. Elizabeth: Why, then, it +is not as you told me. + +Proctor, his anger rising: For a moment, I say. The others come in soon after. + +Elizabeth, quietly - she has suddenly lost all faith in him: Do as you wish, then. +She starts to turn. + +Proctor: Woman. She turns to him. I’ll not have your sus-picion any more. +Elizabeth, a little loftily: / have no - +Proctor: I’ll not have it! + +Elizabeth: Then let you not earn it. + +Proctor, with a violent undertone: You doubt me yet? + +Elizabeth, with a smile, to keep her dignity: John, if it were not Abigail that you +must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not. + +Proctor: Now look you - +Elizabeth: I see what I see, John. + +Proctor, with solemn warning: You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have +good reason to thi nk before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it. Let +you look to your own im-provement before you go to judge your husband any +more. I have forgot Abigail, and - + +Elizabeth: And I. + +Proctor: Spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, +woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I +have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an +everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am + + + +Act Two + + +55 + + +doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into +this house! + +Elizabeth: John, you are not open with me. You saw her with a crowd, you said. Now +you - + +Proctor: I’ll plead my honesty no more, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth - now she would justify herself: John, I am only - + +Proctor: No more! I should have roared you down when first you told me your +suspicion. But I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed! Some dream I had +must have mistaken you for God that day. But you’re not, you’re not, and let you +remember it! Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not. + +Elizabeth: I do not, judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never +thought you but a good man, John - with a smile - only somewhat bewildered. + +Proctor, laughing bitterly: Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer! He turns +suddenly toward a sound outside. He starts for the door as Mary Warren enters. As +soon as he sees her, he goes directly to her and grabs her by her cloak, furious. How do +you go to Salem when I forbid it? Do you mock me? Shaking her. I’ll whip you if you +dare leave this house again! + +Strangely, she doesn ’t resist him, but hangs limply by his grip. + +Mary Warren: I am sick, I am sick, Mr. Proctor. Pray, pray, hurt me not. Her +strangeness throws him op, and her evident pallor and weakness. He frees her. My +insides are all shuddery; I am in the proceedings all day, sir. + +Proctor, with draining anger - his curiosity is draining it:. And what of these +proceedings here? When will you proceed to keep this house, as you are paid nine +pound a year to do - and my wife not wholly well? + + + +56 The Crucible + + +As though to compensate, Maty Warren goes to Elizabeth with a small rag +doll. + +Mary Warren: I made a gift for you today, Goody Proctor. 1 had to sit long +hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing. + +Elizabeth, perplexed, looking at the doll: Why, thank you, it’s a fair poppet. + +Mary Warren, with a trembling, decayed voice: We must all love each other +now, Goody Proctor. + +Elizabeth, amazed at her strangeness: Aye, indeed we must. + +Mary Warren, glancing at the room: I’ll get up early in the morning and clean +the house. I must sleep now. She turns and starts off. + +Proctor: Mary. She halts. Is it true? There be fourteen women arrested? + +Mary Warren: No, sir. There be thirty-nine now - She sud-denly breaks op and +sobs and sits down, exhausted. + +Elizabeth: Why, she’s weepin'! What ails you, child? + +Mary WARREN: Goody Osbum - will hang! + +There is a shocked pause, while she sobs. + +Proctor: Hang! He calls into her face. Hang, y’say? + +Mary Warren, through her weeping: Aye. + +Proctor: The Deputy Governor will permit it? + +Mary Warren: He sentenced her. He must. To ameliorate it: But not Sarah +Good. For Sarah Good confessed, y’see. + +Proctor: Confessed' To what? + +Mary Warren: That she - in horror at the memory - she some-times made a +compact with Lucifer, and wrote her name in his + + + +Act Two + + +57 + + +black book - with her blood - and bound herself to torment Christians till God’s thrown +down - and we all must worship Hell forevermore, + +Pause. + +Proctor: But - surely you know what a jabberer she is. Did you tell them that? + +MARY WARREN: Mr. Proctor, in open court she near to choked us all to +death. + +Proctor: How, choked you? + +Mary Warren: She sent her spirit out. + +Elizabeth: Oh, Mary, Mary, surely you - + +Mary Warren, with an indignant edge: She tried to kill me many times, Goody +Proctor! + +Elizabeth: Why, I never heard you mention that before. + +Mary Warren: I never knew it before. I never knew anything before. 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 - I hear a voice, a screamin’ voice, and it were my voice - +and all at once I re-membered everything she done to me! + +Proctor: Why? What did she do to you? + +Mary Warren, like one awakened to a marvelous secret in-sight: So many time, +Mr. Proctor, she come to this very door, beggin’ bread and a cup of cider - and +mark this: whenever I turned her away empty, she mumbled. + +Elizabeth: Mumbled! She may mumble if she’s hungry. + + + +58 The Crucible + + +Mary Warren: But what does she mumble? You must re-member, Goody +Proctor. Last month - a Monday, I think - she walked away, and I thought my +guts would burst for two days after. Do you remember it? + +Elizabeth: Why - 1 do, 1 think, but - + +Mary Warren: And so I told that to Judge Hathome, and he asks her so. “Sarah +Good,” says he, “what curse do you mumble that this girl must fall sick after +turning you away?” 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! + +Elizabeth: And that’s an upright answer. + +Mary Warren: Aye, but then Judge Hathome say, “Recite for us your +commandments!” - leaning avidly toward them - and of all the ten she could not +say a single one. She never knew no commandments, and they had her in a flat +lie! + +Proctor: And so condemned her? + +Mary Warren, now a little strained, seeing his stubborn doubt: Why, they must +when she condemned herself. + +Proctor: But the proof, the proof! + +Mary Warren, with greater impatience with him: I told you the proof. It’s hard +proof, hard as rock, the judges said. + +Proctor, pauses an instant, then: You will not go to court again, Mary Warren. + +Mary Warren: I must tell you, sir, I will be gone every day now. I am amazed +you do not see what weighty work we do. + +Proctor: What work you do! It’s strange work for a Christian girl to hang old +women! + + +Mary Warren: But, Mr. Proctor, they will not hang them it + + + +Act Two + + +59 + + +they confess. Sarah Good will only sit in jail some time - recall-ing - and here’s +a wonder for you; think on this. Goody Good is pregnant! + +Elizabeth: Pregnant! Are they mad? The woman’s near to sixty! + +Mary Warren: They had Doctor Griggs examine her, and she’s full to the brim. +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. But be that not a marvel? You must +see it, sir, it’s God’s work we do. So I’ll be gone every day for some time. I’m - +I am an official of the court, they say, and I - She has been edging toward +onstage. + +Proctor: I’ll official you! He strides to the mantel, takes down the whip hanging +there. + +Mary Warren, terrified, but coming erect, striving for her au-thority: I’ll not +stand whipping any more! + +Elizabeth, hurriedly, as Proctor approaches: Mary, promise now you’ll stay at +home - + +MARY Warren, backing from him, but keeping her erect pos-ture, striving, +striving for her way: The Devil’s loose in Salem, Mr. Proctor; we must discover +where he’s hiding! + +Proctor! I’ll whip the Devil out of you! With whip raised he reaches out for her, +and she streaks away and yells. + +Mary Warren, pointing at Elizabeth: I saved her life today! + +Silence. His whip comes down. + +Elizabeth, softly: I am accused? + +Mary Warren, quaking: Somewhat mentioned. But I said 1 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. + + +Elizabeth: Who accused me? + + + +60 + + +The Crucible + + +Mary Warren: I am bound by law, I cannot tell it. To Proctor: I only hope you’ll not be so +sarcastical no more. Four judges and the King’s deputy sat to dinner with us but an hour ago. I - +I would have you speak civilly to me, from this out. + +Proctor, in horror, muttering in disgust at her: Go to bed. + +Mary Warren, with a stamp of her foot: I’ll not be ordered to bed no more, Mr. Proctor! I am +eighteen and a woman, how-ever single! + +Proctor: Do you wish to sit up? Then sit up. + +Mary Warren: I wish to go to bed! + +Proctor, in anger: Good night, then! + +Mary Warren: Good night. Dissatisfied, uncertain of herself, she goes out. Wide-eyed, both, +Proctor and Elizabeth stand staring. + +Elizabeth, quietly: Oh, the noose, the noose is up! + +Proctor: There’ll be no noose. + +Elizabeth: She wants me dead. I knew all week it would come to this! + +Proctor, Without conviction: They dismissed it. You heard her say - +Elizabeth: And what of tomorrow? She will cry me out until they take me! + +Proctor: Sit you down. + +Elizabeth: She wants me dead, John, you know it! + +Proctor: I say sit down! She sits, trembling. Pie speaks quietly, trying to keep his wits, Now we +must be wise, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth, with sarcasm, and a sense of being lost: Oh, indeed, indeed! + + + +Act Two61 + +Proctor: Fear nothing. I’ll find Ezekiel Cheever. I’ll tell him she said it were all sport. + +Elizabeth: John, with so many in the jail, more than Cheever’s help is needed +now, I think. Would you favor me with this? Go to Abigail. + +Proctor, his soul hardening as he senses... : What have I to say to Abigail? + +Elizabeth, delicately: John - grant me this. You have a faulty understanding of +young girls. There is a promise made in any bed - + +Proctor, striving against his anger: What promise! + +Elizabeth: Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. And she may dote on it +now - 1 am sure she does - and thinks to kill me, then to take my place. + +Proctor ’s anger is rising: he cannot speak. + +Elizabeth: It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; +why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name - 1 am +no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osbum, drunk and half-witted. She’d +dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She +thinks to take my place, John, + +Proctor: She cannot think it! He knows it is true. + +Elizabeth, “reasonably”: John, have you ever shown her some-what of +contempt? She cannot pass you in the church but you will blush - + +Proctor: I may blush for my sin. + +Elizabeth: I think she sees another meaning in that blush. + + +Proctor: And what see you? What see you, Elizabeth? + + + +62 + + +The Crucible + + +Elizabeth, “conceding”: I think you be somewhat ashamed, far I am there, and she so +close. + +Proctor: When will you know me, woman? Were I stone 1 would have cracked +for shame this seven month! + +Elizabeth: Then go and tell her she’s a whore. Whatever promise she may sense +- break it, John, break it. + +Proctor, between his teeth: Good, then. I’ll go. He starts for his rifle. + +Elizabeth, trembling, fearfully: Oh, how unwillingly! + +Proctor, turning on her, ripe in hand: I will curse her hotter than the oldest +cinder in hell. But pray, begrudge me not my anger! + +Elizabeth: Your anger! I only ask you - + +Proctor: Woman, am I so base? Do you truly thi nk me base? + +Elizabeth: I never called you base. + +Proctor: Then how do you charge me with such a promise? The promise that a +stallion gives a mare 1 gave that girl! + +Elizabeth: Then why do you anger with me when 1 bid you break it? + +Proctor: Because it speaks deceit, and 1 am honest! But I’ll plead no more! I see +now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it +free! + +Elizabeth, crying out: You’ll tear it free - when you come to know that I will be +your only wife, or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and +you know it well! + +Quite suddenly, as though from the air, a figure appears in the doorway. They +start slightly. It is Mr. Hale. He is different now - drawn a little, and there is a +quality of deference, even of guilt, about his manner now. + + + +Hale: Good evening. + + +Act Two + + +63 + + +Proctor, still in his shock: Why, Mr. Hale! Good evening to you, sir. Come in, come in. +Hale, to Elizabeth: I hope 1 do not startle you. + +Elizabeth: No, no, it’s only that I heard no horse - +Hale: You are Goodwife Proctor. + +Proctor: Aye; Elizabeth. + +Hale, nods, then: I hope you’re not off to bed yet. + +Proctor, setting down his gun: No, no. Hale comes further into the room. And +Proctor, to explain his nervousness: We are not used to visitors after dark, but +you’re welcome here. Will you sit you down, sir? + +Hale: I will. He sits. Let you sit, Goodwife Proctor. + +She does, never letting him out of her sight. There is a pause as Hale looks +about the room. + +Proctor, to break the silence: Will you drink cider, Mr. Hale? + +Hale: No, it rebels my stomach; I have some further traveling yet tonight. Sit +you down, sir. Proctor sits. I will not keep you long, but I have some business +with you. + +Proctor: Business of the court? + +Hale: No - no, I come of my own, without the court’s author-ity. Hear me. He +wets his lips. I know not if you are aware, but your wife’s name is - mentioned +in the court. + +Proctor: We know it, sir. Our Mary Warren told us. We are entirely amazed. + +Hale: I am a stranger here, as you know. And in my ignorance I find it hard to +draw a clear opinion of them that come accused before the court. And so this +afternoon, and now tonight, I go + + + +64 The Crucible + +from house to house - 1 come now from Rebecca Nurse’s house and - +Elizabeth, shocked: Rebecca’s charged! + +Hex, a: God forbid such a one be charged. She is, however - mentioned +somewhat. + +Elizabeth, with an attempt at a laugh: You will never believe, I hope, that +Rebecca trafficked with the Devil. + +Hale: Woman, it is possible. + +Proctor: taken aback: Surely you cannot think so. + +Hale: This is a strange time, Mister. No man may longer doubt the powers of +the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village. There is too much +evidence now to deny it. Y ou will agree, sir? + +Proctor, evading: I - have no knowledge in that line. But it’s hard to think so +pious a woman be secretly a Devil’s bitch after seventy year of such good +prayer. + +Hale: Aye. But the Devil is a wily one, you cannot deny it. However, she is far +from accused, and I know she will not be. Pause. I thought, sir, to put some +questions as to the Christian character of this house, if you’ll permit me. + +Proctor, coldly, resentful: Why, we - have no fear of ques-tions, sir. + +Hale: Good, then. He makes himself more comfortable. In the book of record +that Mr. Parris keeps, I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day. + +Proctor: No, sir, you are mistaken. + +Hale: Twenty-six time in seventeen month, sir. I must call that rare. Will you +tell me why you are so absent? + + +Proctor: Mr. Hale, I never knew I must account to that man + + + +65 + + +Act Two + +for I come to church or stay at home. My wife were sick this winter. + +Hale: So I am told. But you. Mister, why could you not come alone? + +Proctor: I surely did come when I could, and when I could not I prayed in this house. + +Hale: Mr. Proctor, your house is not a church; your theology must tell you that. + +Proctor: It does, sir, it does; and it tells me that a minister may pray to God without he +have golden candlesticks upon the altar. + +Hale: What golden candlesticks? + +Proctor: Since we built the church there were pewter candle-sticks upon the altar; +Francis Nurse made them, y’know, and a sweeter hand never touched the metal. But +Parris came, and for twenty week he preach nothin’ but golden candlesticks until he had +them. I labor the earth from dawn of day to blink of night, and I tell you true, when I +look to heaven and see my money glaring at his elbows - it hurt my prayer, sir, it hurt +my prayer. I think, sometimes, the man dreams cathedrals, not clapboard meetin’ +houses. + +Hale, thinks, then: And yet. Mister, a Christian on Sabbath Day must be in church. +Pause. Tell me - you have three chil-dren? + +Proctor: Aye. Boys. + +Hale: How comes it that only two are baptized? + +Proctor, starts 'o speak, then stops, then, as though unable to restrain this: 1 like it not +that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I’ll +not conceal it. + + + +66 + + +The Crucible + + +Hale: I must say it, Mr. Proctor; that is not for you to decide. The man’s ordained, +therefore the light of God is in him. + +Proctor, flushed with resentment but trying to smile: What’s your suspicion, Mr. +Hale? + +Hale; No, no, I have no - + +Proctor: I nailed the roof upon the church, I hung the door - +Hale: Oh, did you! That’s a good sign, then. + +Proctor: It may be I have been too quick to bring the man to book, but you +cannot think we ever desired the destruction of religion. I think that’s in your +mind, is it not? + +Hale, not altogether giving way: I - have - there is a softness in your record, sir, +a softness. + +Elizabeth: I think, maybe, we have been too hard with Mr. Parris. I think so. But +sure we never loved the Devil here. + +Hale, nods, deliberating this. Then, with the voice of one ad-ministering a secret +test: Do you know your Commandments, Elizabeth? + +Elizabeth, without hesitation, even eagerly: I surely do. There be no mark of +blame upon my life, Mr. Hale. I am a covenanted Christian woman. + +Hale: And you, Mister? + +Proctor, a tripe unsteadily: I - am sure I do, sir. + +Hale, glances at her open face, then at John, then: Let you re -peat them, if you +will. + +Proctor: The Commandments. + +Hale: Aye. + +Proctor, looking off, beginning to sweat: Thou shalt not kill. + + + +Hale: Aye. + + +Act Two + + +67 + + +Proctor, counting on his angers: Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods, +nor make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain; thou +shalt have no other gods before me. With some hesitation: Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day +and keep it holy. Pause. Then: Thou shalt honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not bear false +witness. He is stuck. He counts back on his fingers, knowing one is missing. Thou shalt not make +unto thee any graven image. + +Hale: You have said that twice, sir. Proctor, lost: Aye. He is failing +for it. Elizabeth, delicately: Adultery, John. + +Proctor, as though a secret arrow had pained his heart: Aye. Trying to grin it away - to +Hale: You see, sir, between the two of us we do know them all. Hale only looks at +Proctor, deep in his attempt to define this man, Proctor grows more uneasy. I think it be +a small fault. + +Hale: Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small. He +rises; he seems worried now. He paces a little, in deep thought. + +Proctor: There be no love for Satan in this house, Mister. + +Hale: 1 pray it, I pray it dearly. He looks to both of them, an attempt at a smile on his +face, but his misgivings are clear. Well, then - I’ll bid you good night. + +Elizabeth, unable to restrain herself: Mr. Hale. He turns. I do think you are suspecting +me somewhat? Are you not? + +Hale, obviously disturbed - and evasive: Goody Proctor, I do not judge you. My duty is +to add what I may to the godly + + + +68 + + +The Crucible + + +wisdom of the court. I pray you both good health and good fortune. To John: Good +night, sir. He starts out. + +Elizabeth, with a note of desperation: I think you must tell him, John. + +Hale: What’s that? + +Elizabeth, restraining a call: Will you tell him? + +Slight pause. Hale looks questioningly at John. + +Proctor, with difficulty: I - I have no witness and cannot prove it, except my +word be taken. But I know the children’s sickness had naught to do with +witchcraft. + +Hale, stopped, struck: Naught to do - ? + +Proctor: Mr. Parris discovered them sportin' in the woods. They were startled +and took sick. + +Pause. + +Hale: Who told you this? + +Proctor, hesitates, then: Abigail Williams. + +Hale: Abigail! + +Proctor: Aye. + +Hale, his eyes wide: Abigail Williams told you it had naught to do with +witchcraft! + +Proctor: She told me the day you came, sir. + +Hale, suspiciously: Why - why did you keep this? + +Proctor: I never knew until tonight that the world is gone daft with this +nonsense. + +Hale: Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and +numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have +confessed it. + + + +Act Two + + +69 + + +Proctor: And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear +to anything before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that? + +Hale: I have. 1 - I have indeed. It is his own suspicion, but he resists it. He +glances at Elizabeth, then at John. And you - would you testify to this in court? + +Proctor: I - had not reckoned with goin’ into court. But if I must I will. + +Hale: Do you falter here? + +Proctor: 1 falter nothing, but I may wonder if my story will be credited in such a +court. I do wonder on it, when such a steady-minded minister as you will +suspicion such a woman that never lied, and cannot, and the world knows she +cannot! I may falter somewhat, Mister; I am no fool. + +Hale, quietly - it has impressed him: Proctor, let you open with me now, for I +have a rumor that troubles me.' It’s said you hold no belief that there may even +be witches in the world. Is that true, sir? + +Proctor - he knows this is critical and is striving against his disgust with Hale +and with himself for even answering: I know not what I have said, I may have +said it. I have wondered if there be witches in the world - although I cannot +believe they come among us now. + +Hale: Then you do not believe - + +Proctor: I have no knowledge of it; the Bible speaks of witches, and I will not +deny them. + +Hale: And you, woman? + +Elizabeth: I - 1 cannot believe it. + + +Hale, shocked: You cannot! + + + +70 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor: Elizabeth, you bewilder him! + +Elizabeth, to Hale: I cannot think the Devil may own a woman’s soul, Mr. Hale, +when she keeps an upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if +you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to +Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it. + +Hale: But, woman, you do believe there are witches in - + +Elizabeth: If you think that I am one, then I say there are none. + +Hale: You surely do not fly against the Gospel, the Gospel - + +Proctor: She believe in the Gospel, every word! + +Elizabeth: Question Abigail William s about the Gospel, not myself! + +Hale stares at her. + +Proctor: She do not mean to doubt the Gospel, sir, you can-not think it. This be +a Christian house, sir, a Christian house. + +Hale: God keep you both; let the third child be quickly baptized, and go you +without fail each Sunday in to Sabbath prayer; and keep a solemn, quiet way +among you. I think - +Giles Corey appears in doorway. + +Giles: John! + +PRoctoR: Giles! What’s the matter? + +Giles: They take my wife. + +Francis Nurse enters. + +Giles: And his Rebecca! + +Proctor, to Francis: Rebecca’s in the jaill + +Francis: Aye, Cheever come and take her in his wagon. We’ve + + + +Act Two + + +71 + + +only now come from the jail, and they’ll not even let us in to see them. + +Elizabeth: They’ve surely gone wild now, Mr. Hale! + +Francis, going to Hale: Reverend Hale! Can you not speak to the Deputy +Governor? I’m sure he mistakes these people - + +Hale: Pray calm yourself, Mr. Nurse. + +Francis: My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church, Mr.. Hale - +indicating Giles - and Martha Corey, there cannot be a woman closer yet to God +than Martha. + +Hale: How is Rebecca charged, Mr. Nurse? + +Francis, with a mocking, half-hearted laugh: For murder, she’s charged! +Mockingly quoting the warrant: “For the marvelous and supernatural murder of +Goody Putnam’s babies.” What am I to do, Mr. Hale? + +Hale, turns from Francis, deeply troubled, then: Believe me, Mr. Nurse, if +Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world +from burning. Let you rest upon the justice of the court; the court will send her +home, I know it. + +Francis: You cannot mean she will be tried in court! + +Hale, pleading: Nurse, though our hearts break, we cannot flinch; these are new +times, sir. There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to +old respects and ancient friendships. I have seen too many frightful proofs in +court - the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the +accusing finger points! + +Proctor, angered: How may such a woman murder children? + +Hale, in great pain: Man, remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God +thought him beautiful in Heaven. + +GiLES: I never said my wife were a witch, Mr. Hale; I only said she were +reading books! + + + +72 + + +The Crucible + + +Hale: Mr. Corey, exactly what complaint were made on your wife? + +Giles: That bloody mongrel Walcott charge her. Y’see, he buy a pig of my wife +four or five year ago, and the pig died soon after. So he come dancin’ in for his +money back. So my Martha, she says to him, “Walcott, if you haven’t the wit to +feed a pig properly, you’ll not live to own many,” she says. Now he 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! + +Enter Ezekiel Cheever. A shocked silence. + +CHEEvER: Good evening to you, Proctor. + +Proctor: Why, Mr. Cheever. Good evening. + +Cheever: Good evening, all. Good evening, Mr. Hale. + +Proctor: I hope you come not on business of the court. + +Cheever: I do, Proctor, aye. I am clerk of the court, now, y’know. + +Enter Marshal Herrick, a man in hi" early thirties, who is some-what +shamefaced at the moment. + +Giles: It’s a pity, Ezekiel, that an honest tailor might have gone to Heaven must +bum in Hell. You’ll bum for this, do you know it? + +Cheever: You know yourself I must do as I’m told. You surely know that, Giles. +And I’d as lief you’d not be sending me to Hell. I like not the sound of it, I tell +you; I like not the sound of it. He fears Proctor, but starts to reach inside his +coat. Now believe me, Proctor, how heavy be the law, all its tonnage I do carry +on my back tonight. He takes out a warrant. I have a warrant for your wife. + + +Proctor, to Hale: You said she were not charged! + + + +Act Two + + +73 + + +Hale: I know nothin’ of it. To Cheever: When were she charged? + +Cheever: I am given sixteen warrant tonight, sir, and she is one. + +Proctor: Who charged her? + +Cheever: Why, Abigail Williams charge her. + +Proctor: On what proof, what proof? + +Cheever, looking about the room: Mr. Proctor, 1 have little time. The court bid +me search your house, but I like not to search a house. So will you hand me any +poppets that your wife may keep here? + +Proctor: Poppets? + +Elizabeth: I never kept no poppets, not since I were a girl. + +Cheever, embarrassed, glancing toward the mantel where sits Maty Warren ’s +poppet: I spy a poppet, Goody Proctor. + +Elizabeth: Oh! Going for it: Why, this is Mary’s. + +Cheever, shyly: Would you please to give it to me? + +Elizabeth, handing it to him, asks HaLe: Has the court discov-ered a text in +poppets now? + +Cheever, carefully holding the poppet: Do you keep any others in this house? + +PRocvoa: No, nor this one either till tonight. What signifies a poppet? + +Cheever: Why, a poppet - he gingerly turns the poppet over - a poppet may +signify - Now, woman, will you please to come with me? + +Proctor: She will not! To Elizabeth: Fetch Mary here. + +Cheever, ineptly reaching toward Elizabeth: No, no, I am for-bid to leave her +from my sight. + + + +74 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor, pushing his arm away: You’ll leave her out of sight and out of mind. +Mister. Fetch Mary, Elizabeth. Elizabeth goes upstairs. + +Hale: What signifies a poppet, Mr. Cheever? + +Cheever, turning the poppet over in his hands: Why, they say it may signify that +she - He has lifted the poppet’s skirt, and his eyes widen in astonished fear. +Why, this, this - + +Proctor, reaching for the poppet: What’s there? + +Cheever: Why - He draws out a long needle from the poppet - it is a needle! +Herrick, Herrick, it is a needle! + +Herrick comes toward Aim. + +Proctor, angrily, bewildered: And what signifies a needle! + +Cheever, his hands shaking: Why, this go hard with her, Proc-tor, this - I had +my doubts, Proctor, I had my doubts, but here’s' calamity. To Hale, showing the +needle: You see it, sir, it is a needle! + +Hale: Why? What meanin’ has it? + +Cheever, wide-eyed, trembling: The girl, the Williams girl, Abi-gail Williams, +sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor +warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a +scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two +inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how +she come to be so stabbed, she - to Proctor now - testify it -were your wife’s +familiar spirit pushed it in. + +Proctor: Why, she done it herself! To Hale: I hope you’re not takin’ this for +proof, Mister! + + +Hale, struck by the proof, is silent. + + + +Act Two + + +75 + + +Cheever: ’Tis hard proof! To Hale: 1 find here a poppet Goody Proctor keeps. I have found it, sir. +And in the belly of the poppet a needle’s stuck. I tell you true, Proctor, I never warranted to see +such proof of Hell, and I bid you obstruct me not, for 1 - + +Enter Elizabeth with Maiy Warren. Proctor, seeing Maiy War-ren, draws her by the arm to +Hale. + +Proctor: Here now! Mary, how did this poppet come into my house? + +Mary W arren, frightened for herself, her voice very’ small: What poppet’s that, sir? + +Proctor, impatiently, pointing at the doll in Cheever ’s hand: This poppet, this poppet. + +Mary Warren, evasively, looking at it: Why, I - 1 think it is mine. + +Proctor: It is your poppet, is it not? + +Mary Warren, not understanding the direction of this: It - is, sir. + +Proctor: And how did it come into this house? + +Mary Warren, glancing about at the avid faces: Why - 1 made it in the court, sir, and - give it to +Goody Proctor tonight. + +Proctor, to Hale: Now, sir - do you have it? + +Hale: Mary Warren, a needle have been found inside this poppet. + +Mary Warren, bewildered: Why, I meant no harm by it, sir. + +Proctor, quickly: You stuck that needle in yourself? + +Mary Warren: I - 1 believe I did, sir, I - + + + +76 The Crucible + +Proctor: to Hale: What say you now? + + +Hale, watching Mary > Warren closely: Child, you are certain this be your natural +memory? May it be, perhaps, that someone conjures you even now to say this? + +Mary Warren: Conjures me? Why, no, sir, I am entirely my-self, I think. Let you ask +Susanna Walcott - she saw me sewin’ it in court. Or better still: Ask Abby, Abby sat +beside me when I made it. + +Proctor, to Hale, of Cheever: Bid him begone. Your mind is surely settled now. Bid him +out, Mr. Hale. + +Elizabeth: What signifies a needle? + +Hale: Mary - you charge a cold and cruel murder on Abigail. + +Mary Warren: Murder! I charge no - + +Hale: Abigail were stabbed tonight; a needle were found stuck into her belly - +Elizabeth: And she charges me? + +Hale: Aye. + +Elizabeth, her breath knocked out: Why - ! The girl is mur-der! She must be ripped out +of the world! + +Cheever, pointing at Elizabeth: You’ve heard that, sir! Ripped out of the world! +Herrick, you heard it! + +Proctor, suddenly snatching the warrant out of Cheever ’s hands: Out with you. + +Cheever: Proctor, you dare not touch the warrant. + +Proctor, ripping the warrant: Out with you! + +Cheever: You’ve ripped the Deputy Governor’s warrant, man! + + + +Act Twc 77 + +Proctor: Damn the Deputy Governor! Out of my house! + +Hale: Now, Proctor, Proctor! + +PRoctoR: Get y’gone with them! You are a broken minister. Hale: Proctor, if she is innocent, the court - + +Proctor: If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the +accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you +what’s walking Salem - vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but +now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes +the law! This warrant’s vengeance! I’ll not give my wife to vengeance! + +Elizabeth: I’ll go, John - Proctor: You will not go! + +Herrick: I have nine men outside. You cannot keep her. The lair binds me, John, I +cannot budge. + +Proctor, to Hale, ready to break him: Will you see her taken? Hale: Proctor, the court is +just- + +Proctor: Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands of this! + +Elizabeth: John - 1 think I must go with them. He cannot bear to look at her. Mary, there +is bread enough for the morning; you will bake, in the afternoon. Help Mr. Proctor as +you were his daughter - you owe me that, and much more. She is fighthing her weeping. + +To Proctor: When the children wake, speak noth-ing of witchcraft - it will frighten +them. She cannot go on. + +Proctor: I will bring you home. I will bring you soon. Elizabeth: Oh, John, bring +me soon! + + + +78 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor: I will fall like an ocean on that court! Pear nothing, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth, with great fear: I will fear nothing. She looks about the room, as +though to fix it in her mind. Tell the children I have gone to visit someone sick. + +.She walks out the door, Herrick and Cheever behind her. For a moment, +Proctor watches from the doorway. The clank of chain is heard. + +PRoctoR: Herrick! Herrick, don’t chain her! He rushes out the door. From +outside: Da mn you, man, you will not chain her! Off with them! I’ll not have it! +I will not have her chained! + +There are other men's voices against his. Hale, in a fever of guilt and +uncertainty, turns from the door to avoid the sight; Maty Warren bursts into +tears and sits weeping. Giles Corey calls to Hale. + +Giles: And yet silent, minister? It is fraud, you know it is fraud! %hat keeps +you, man? + +Proctor is half braced, half pushed into the room by two deputies and Herrick. +Proctor: I’ll pay you, Herrick, I will surely pay you! + +Herrick , panting: In God’s name, John, I cannot help myself. I must chain them +all. Now let you keep inside this house till 1 am gone! He goes out with his +deputies. + +Proctor stands there, gulping air. Horses and a wagon creak-ing are heard. + +Hale, in great uncertainty: Mr. Proctor - Proctor: Out of my + +sight! + +Hale: Charity, Proctor, charity. What I have heard in her favor, I will not fear to +testify in court. God help me, I cannot + + + +Act Two + + +79 + + +judge her guilty or innocent - 1 know not. Only this consider: the world goes mad, and it +profit nothing you should lay the cause to the vengeance of a little girl. + +Proctor: You are a coward! Though you be ordained in God’s own tears, you are a +coward now! + +Hale: Proctor, I cannot think God be provoked so grandly by such a petty cause. The +jails are packed - our greatest judges sit in Salem now - and hangin’s promised. Man, +we must look to cause proportionate. Were there murder done, perhaps, and never +brought to light? Abomination? Some secret blasphemy that stinks to Heaven? Think on +cause, man, and let you help me to discover it. For there’s your way, believe it, there is +your only way, when such confusion strikes upon the world. He goes to Giles and +Francis. Let you counsel among yourselves; think on your village and what may have +drawn from heaven such thundering wrath upon you all. I shall pray God open up our +eyes. + +Hale goes out. + +Francis, struck by Hate ’s mood: I never heard no murder done in Salem. + +Proctor - he has been reached by Hale ’s words: Leave me, Francis, leave me. + +Giles, shaken: John - tell me, are we lost? + +Proctor: Go home now, Giles, We’ll speak on it tomorrow. + +Giles: Let you think on it. We’ll come early, eh? + +Proctor: Aye. Go now, Giles. + +Giles: Good night, then. + +Giles Corey goes out. After a moment: + +Mary Warren, in a fearful squeak of n voice: Mr. Proctor, + + + +80 + + +The Crucible + + +very likely they’ll let her come home once they’re given proper evidence. + +Proctor: You’re coming to the court with me, Mary. You will tell it in the court, + +Mary Warren: I cannot charge murder on Abigail. + +Proctor, moving menacingly toward her: You will tell the court how that poppet come +here and who stuck the needle in. + +Mary Warren: She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! Proctor continues toward her. Abby’ll +charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor! + +Proctor, halting: She’s told you! + +Mary Warren: I have known it, sir. She’ll ruin you with it, I know she will. + +Proctor, hesitating, and with deep hatred of himself: Good. Then her saintliness is done +with. Maty backs from him. We will slide together into our pit; you will tell the court +what you know. + +Mary Warren, in terror: I cannot, they’ll turn on me - + +Proctor strides and catches her, and she is repeating, “I cannot, I cannot! ” + +Proctor: My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that +goodness will not die for me! + +Mary Warren, struggling to escape him: I cannot do it, I cannot! + +Proctor, grasping her by the throat as though he would strangle her: Make your peace +with it! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped +away - make your peace! He throws her to the poor, where she sobs, "I cannot, I +cannot... ’’And now, half to himself, staring, and + + + +Act Two + + +81 + + +turning to the open door: Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we +always were, but naked now. He walks as though toward a great horror, facing the open sky’. +e, naked! And the wind, God’s icy wind, will blow! + +And she is over and over again sobbing, “I cannot, I cannot, l cannot, ” as + +THE CURTAIN FALLS* + +*Act II, Scene 2, which appeared in the original production, was dropped by the author from the published reading +version, the Collected Plays, and all Compass editions prior to 1971. It has not been included in most prodluctions +subsequent to the revival at New York’s Martinique Theatre in • 1958 and was dropped by Sir Laurence Olivier in his +London production in 1965. it is included here as an appendix on page 148. + + + +ACT THREE + + +The vestry room of the Salem meeting house, now serving as the anteroom of +the General Court. + +As the curtain rises, the room is empty, but for sunlight pouring through two +high windows in the back wall. The room is solemn, even forbidding. Heavy +beams jut out, boards of random widths make up the walls. At the right are two +doors leading into the meeting house proper, where the court is being held. At +the left another door leads outside. + +There is a plain bench at the left, and another at the right. In the center a rather +long meeting table, with stools and a considerable armchair snugged up to it. + +Through the partitioning wall at the right we hear a prosecutor 's voice, Judge +Hathorne ’s, asking a question; then a woman ’s voice, Martha Corey ’s, +replying. + +Hathome's Voice: Now, Martha Corey, there is abundant evidence in our hands +to show that you have given yourself to the reading of fortunes, Do you deny it? + +MARTHA CoREy’s Voice: I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch + + + +84 + + +The Crucible + + +HATHoRNE’s Voice: How do you know, then, that you are not a witch? +Martha Corey’s Voice: If I were, I would know it. + +HATHoRNE’s Voice: Why do you hurt these children? + +Martha Corey’s Voice: I do not hurt them. I scorn it! + +Giles’ Voice, roaring: I have evidence for the court! + +Voices of townspeople rise in excitement. + +Danforth’s Voice: You will keep your seat! + +Giles Voice: Thomas Putnam is reaching out for land! + +Danforth’s Voice: Remove that man, Marshal! + +Giles’ Voice: You’re hearing lies, lies! + +A roaring goes up from the people. + +Hathorne’s Voice: Arrest him, excellency! + +Giles’ Voice: I have evidence. Why will you not hear my evi-dence? + +The door opens and Giles is half carried into the vestry room by Herrick. +Giles: Hands off, damn you, let me go! + +Herrick: Giles, Giles! + +Giles: Out of my way, Herrick! I bring evidence - +Herrick: You cannot go in there, Giles; it’s a court! + +Enter Hale from the court. + +Hale: Pray be calm a moment. + +Giles: You, Mr. Hale, go in there and demand I speak. + +Hale: A moment, sir, a moment. + + + +Act Three Giles: They’ll be hangin’ my wife! + + +85 + + +Judge Hathorne enters. He is in his sixties, a bitter, remorseless Salem judge. + +Hathome: How do you dare come roarin’ into this court! Are you gone daft, +Corey? + +Giles: You’re not a Boston judge yet, Hathorne. You’ll not call me daft! + +Enter Deputy Governor Danforth and, behind him, Ezekiel Cheever and Parris. +On his appearance, silence falls. Danforth is a grave man in his sixties, of some +humor and sophistication that does not, however, interfere with an exact loyalty +to his position and his cause. He comes down to Giles, who awaits his wrath. + +Danforth, looking directly at Giles: Who is this man? + +pARRIS: Giles Corey, sir, and a more contentious - + +Giles, to Parris: 1 am asked the question, and I am old enough to answer it! To +Danforth, who impresses him and to whom he smiles through his strain: My +name is Corey, sir, Giles Corey. 1 have six hundred acres, and timber in +addition. It is my wife you be condemning now. He indicates the courtroom. + +Danforth: And how do you imagine to help her cause with such contemptuous +riot? Now be gone. Your old age alone keeps you out of jail for this. + +Giles, beginning to plead: They be tellin’ lies about my wife, sir, I - + +Danforth: Do you take it upon yourself to determine what this court shall +believe and what it shall set aside? + +Giles: Your Excellency, we mean no disrespect for - +Danforth: Disrespect indeed! It is disruption, Mister. This is + + + +86 + + +The Crucible + + +the highest court of the supreme government of this province, do you know it? + +GiLES, beginning to weep: Your Excellency, I only said she were readin’ +books, sir, and they come and take her out of my house for - + +Danforth, mystified: Books! What books? + +Giles, through helpless sobs: It is my third wife, sir; I never had no wife that be +so taken with books, and I thought to find the cause of it, d’y’see, but it were no +witch I blamed her for. He is openly weeping. I have broke charity with the +woman, I have broke charity with her. He covers his face, ashamed. Dan-forth +is respectfully silent. + +Hale: Excellency, he claims hard evidence for his wife’s de-fense. I think that +in all justice you must - + +Danforth: Then let him submit his evidence in proper affidavit. You are +certainly aware of our procedure here, Mr. Hale. To Herrick: Clear this room. + +HERRiCK: Come now, Giles, He gently pushes Corey out. + +Francis: We are desperate, sir; we come here three days now and cannot be +heard. + +Danforth: Who is this man? + +Francis: Francis Nurse, Your Excellency. + +Hale: His wife’s Rebecca that were condemned this morning. + +Danforth: Indeed! I am amazed to find you in such uproar; I have only good +report of your character, Mr. Nurse. + +Hathorne: I think they must both be arrested in contempt, sir. + +Danforth, to Francis: Let you write your plea, and in due time I will - + + + +Act Three + + +87 + + +Francis: Excellency, we have proof for your eyes; God forbid you shut them to it. The +girls, sir, the girls are frauds. + +Danforth: What’s that? + +FRANcis: We have proof of it, sir. They are all deceiving you. + +Danforth is shocked, but studying Francis. + +Flathome: This is contempt, sir, contempt! + +Danforth: Peace, Judge Flathome. Do you know who I am, Mr. Nurse? + +Francis: I surely do, sir, and I think you must be a wise judge to be what you +are. + +Danforth: And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from +Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature? + +Francis: I - + +Danforth: And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature? + +Francis: Excellency, I never thought to say it to such a weighty judge, but you +are deceived. + +Enter Giles Corey from left. All turn to see as he beckons in Mar\> Warren with +Proctor. Maty is keeping her eyes to the ground; Proctor has her elbow as +though she were near collapse. + +Parris, on seeing her, in shock: Mary Warren! He goes directly to bend close to +her face. What are you about here? + +Proctor, pressing Parris away from her with a gentle but burnt motion of +protectiveness: She would speak with the Deputy Governor. + +Danforth, shocked by this, turns to Herrick: Did you not tell me Mary Warren +were sick in bed? + + + +The Crucible + + +Herrick: She were, Your Honor. When I go to fetch her to the court last week, +she said she were sick. + +Giles: She has been strivin’ with her soul all week, Your Honor; she comes now +to tell the truth of this to you. + +Danforth: Who is this? + +Proctor: John Proctor, sir. Elizabeth Proctor is my wife. + +Parris: Beware this man. Your Excellency, this man is mischief. + +Hale, excitedly: I think you must hear the girl, sir, she - + +Danforth, who has become very > interested in Maty Warren and only raises a +hand toward Hale: Peace. What would you tell us, Mary Warren? + +Proctor looks at her, but she cannot speak. Proctor! She never +saw no spirits, sir. + +Danforth, with great alarm and surprise, to Maty: Never saw no spirits! + +Giles, eagerly: Never. + +Proctor, reaching into his jacket: She has signed a deposition, +sir - + +Danforth, instantly: No, no, 1 accept no depositions. He is rapidly calculating +this; he turns from her to Proctor. Tell me, Mr. Proctor, have you given out this +story in the village? + +Proctor: We have not. + +Parris: They’ve come to overthrow the court, sir! This man is - + +Danforth: I pray you, Mr, Parris. Do you know, Mr. Proctor, that the entire +contention of the state in these trials is that the voice of Heaven is speaking +through the children? + + +Proctor: I know that, sir. + + + +Act Three + + +89 + + +Danforth, thinks, staring at Proctor, then turns to Mary War-ren: And you, Mary +Warren, how came you to cry out people for sending their spirits against you? + +Mary Warren: It were pretense, sir. + +Danforth: I cannot hear you. + +Proctor: It were pretense, she says. + +Danforth: Ah? And the other girls? Susanna Walcott, and - the others? They are +also pretending? + +Mary Warren: Aye, sir. + +Danforth, wide-eyed: Indeed. Pause. He is baffled by this. He turns to study +Proctor ’s face. + +Parris, in a sweat: Excellency, you surely cannot think to let so vile a lie be +spread in open court! + +Danforth: Indeed not, but it strike hard upon me that she will dare come here +with such a tale. Now, Mr. Proctor, before I decide whether I shall hear you or +not, it is my duty to tell you this. We bum a hot fire here; it melts down all +concealment. + +Proctor: I know that, sir. + +Danforth: Let me continue. I understand well, a husband’s tenderness may drive +him to extravagance in defense of a wife. Are you certain in your conscience, +Mister, that your evidence is the truth? + +Proctor: It is. And you will surely know it. + +Danforth: And you thought to declare this revelation in the open court before +the public? + +Proctor: I thought I would, aye - with your permission. + +Danforth, his eyes narrowing: Now, sir, what is your purpose in so doing? + + + +90 The Crucible + +PRoctoR: Why, I - 1 would free my wife, sir. + +Danforth: There lurks nowhere in your heart, nor hidden in your spirit, any +desire to undermine this court? + +Proctor, with the faintest faltering: Why, no, sir. + +Cheever, clears his throat, awakening: I - Your Excellency. + +Danforth: Mr. Cheever. + +Cheever: I think it be my duty, sir - Kindly, to Proctor: You’ll not deny it, John. +To Danforth: When we come to take his wife, he damned the court and ripped +your warrant. + +Parris: Now you have it! + +Danforth: He did that, Mr. Hale? + +Hale, takes a breath: Aye, he did. + +Proctor: It were a temper, sir. I knew not what I did. + +Danforth, studying him: Mr. Proctor. + +Proctor: Aye, sir. + +Danforth, straight into his eyes: Have you ever seen the Devil? + +Proctor: No, sir. + +Danforth: Y ou are in all respects a Gospel Christian? + +Proctor: I am, sir. + +Parris: Such a Christian that will not come to church but once in a month! +Danforth, restrained - he is curious: Not come to church? + +Proctor: I - 1 have no love for Mr. Parris. It is no secret. But God I surely love. + + +Cheever: He plow on Sunday, sir. + + + +Act Three + +Danforth: Plow on Sunday! + + +91 + + +Cheever, apologetically: 1 think it be evidence, John. I am an official of the court, I +cannot keep it. + +Proctor: I - I have once or twice plowed on Sunday. 1 have three children, sir, +and until last year my land give little. + +Giles: You’ll find other Christians that do plow on Sunday if the truth be +known. + +Hale: Your Honor, 1 cannot think you may judge the man on such evidence. + +Danforth: I judge nothing. Pause. He keeps watching Proctor, who tries to meet +his gaze. I tell you straight, Mister - I have seen marvels in this court. I have +seen people choked before my eyes by spirits; I have seen them stuck by pins +and slashed by daggers. 1 have until this moment not the slightest reason to sus- +pect that the children may be deceiving me. Do you 'understand my meaning? + +Proctor: Excellency, does it not strike upon you that so many of these women +have lived so long with such upright reputation, and - +PARRis: Do you read the Gospel, Mr. Proctor? Proctor: I read +the Gospel. + +PARRis: I think not, or you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, +and yet he did kill Abel. + +Proctor: Aye, God tells us that. To Danforth: But who tells us Rebecca Nurse +murdered seven babies by sending out her spirit on them? It is the children only, +and this one will swear she lied to you. + +Danforth considers, then beckons Hathorne to him. Hathorne leans in, and he +speaks in his ear. Hathorne nods. + + + +92 + + +The Crucible + + +Hathome: Aye, she’s the one. + +Danforth: Mr. Proctor, this morning, your wife send me a claim in which she +states that she is pregnant now. + +Proctor: My wife pregnant! + +Danforth: There be no sign of it - we have examined her body. + +Proctor: But if she say she is pregnant, then she must be! That woman will +never lie, Mr. Danforth. + +Danforth: She will not? + +Proctor: Never, sir, never. + +Danforth: We have thought it too convenient to be credited. However, if I +should tell you now that I will let her be kept another month; and if she begin to +show her natural signs, you shall have her living yet another year until she is +delivered - what say you to that? John Proctor is struck silent. Come now. You +say your only purpose is to save your wife. Good, then, she is saved at least this +year, and a year is long. What say ' you, sir? It is done now. In convict, Proctor +glances at Francis and Giles. Will you drop this charge? + +PRocToR: I - 1 thi nk I cannot. + +Danforth, now an almost imperceptible hardness in his voice: Then your +purpose is somewhat larger. + +Parris: He’s come to overthrow this court, Your Honor! + +Proctor: These are my friends. Their wives are also accused - + +Danforth, with a sudden briskness of manner: I judge you not, sir. I am ready to +hear your evidence. + +Proctor: I come not to hurt the court; I only - + +Danforth, cutting him op: Marshal, go into the court and bid + + + +Act Three + + +93 + + +Judge Stoughton and Judge Sewall declare recess for one hour. And let them go to the +tavern, if they will. All witnesses and prisoners are to be kept m the building. + +Herrick: Aye, sir'. Very deferentially: If I may say it, sir, I know this man all my +life. It is a good man, sir. + +Danforth - it is the reflection on himself he resents: I am sure of it, Marshal. +Herrick nods, then goes out. Now, what deposi-tion do you have for us, Mr. +Proctor? And I beg you be clear, open as the sky, and honest. + +Proctor, as he takes out several papers: I am no lawyer, so I'll - + +Danforth: The pure in heart need no lawyers. Proceed as you will. + +Proctor, handing Danforth a paper: Will you read this first, sir? It’s a sort of +testament. The people signing it declare their good opinion of Rebecca, and my +wife, and Martha Corey. Danforth looks down at the paper. + +Parris, to enlist Danforth ’s sarcasm: Their good opinion! But Danforth goes on +reading, and Proctor is heartened. + +Proctor: These are all landholding farmers, members of the church. Delicately, +trying to point out a paragraph: If you’ll notice, sir - they’ve known the women +many years and never saw no sign they had dealings with the Devil. + +Parris nervously moves over and reads over Dan forth ’s shoulder: + +Danforth, glancing down a long list: How many names are here? + +Francis: Ninety-one, Your Excellency. + +PaRRis, 'sweating: These people should be summoned. Danforth Looks up at +him questioningly. For questioning. + + + +94 + + +The Crucible + + +Francis, trembling with anger: Mr. Danforth, I gave them all my word no harm +would come to them for signing this. + +Parris: This is a clear attack upon the court! + +Hale, to Parris, trying to contain himself: Is every defense an attack upon the +court? Can no one - ? + +Parris: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! +These people are gloomy for it. To Danforth directly: And I think you will want +to know, from each and every one of them, what discontents them with you! + +Hathome: I think they ought to be examined, sir. + +Danforth: It is not necessarily an attack, I think. Yet - + +Francis: These are all covenanted Christians, sir. + +Danforth: Then I am sure they may have nothing to fear. Hands Cheever the +paper. Mr. Cheever, have warrants drawn for all of these - arrest for +examination. To Proctor: Now, Mister, what other information do you have for +us? Francis is still standing, horrified. You may sit, Mr. Nurse. + +Francis: I have brought trouble on these people; I have - + +Danforth: No, old man, you have not hurt these people if they are of good +conscience. But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court +or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a shaip time, +now, a pre-cise time - we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed +itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God’s grace, the shining sun +is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it. I hope you will be one of +those. Man > Warren suddenly sobs. She’s not hearty, I see. + +Proctor: No, she’s not, sir. To Man >, bending to her, holding her hand, quietly: +Now remember what the angel Raphael saint to the boy Tobias. Remember it. + + + +Act Three Mary Warren, hardly audible: Aye. + + +95 + + +Proctor: “Do that which is good, and no harm shall come to thee.” + +Mary Warren: Aye. + +Danforth: Come, man, we wait you. + +Marshal Herrick returns, and takes his post at the door. + +Giles: John, my deposition, give him mine. + +Proctor: Aye. He hands Danforth another paper. This is Mr. Corey’s +deposition. + +Danforth: Oh? He looks down at it. Now Hathorne comes behind him and reads +with him. + +Hathorne, suspiciously: What lawyer drew this, Corey? + +Giles: You know I never hired a lawyer in my life, Hathorne. + +Danforth, finishing the reading: It is very well phrased. My compliments. Mr. +Parris, if Mr. Putnam is in the court, will you bring him in? Hathorne takes the +deposition, and walks to the window with it. Parris goes into the court. You +have no legal training, Mr. Corey? + +Giles, very pleased: I have the best, sir - I am thirty-three time in court in my +life. And always plaintiff, too. + +Danforth: Oh, then you’re much put-upon. + +Giles: I am never put-upon; I know my rights, sir, and I will have them. You +know, your father tried a case of mine - might be thirty-five year ago, I think. + +Danforth: Indeed. + +Giles: He never spoke to you of it? + + +Danforth: No, I cannot recall it. + + + +96 + + +The Crucible + + +Giles: That’s strange, he give me nine pound damages. He were a fair judge, your +father. Y’see, I had a white mare that tinge, and this fellow come to borrow the mare - +Enter Parris with Thomas Putnam. When he sees Putnam, Giles ’ ease goes; he is hard. +Aye, there he is. + +Danforth: Mr. Putnam, I have here an accusation by Mr. Corey against you. He +states that you coldly prompted your daughter to cry witchery upon George +Jacobs that is now in jail. + +Putnam: It is a lie. + +Danforth, turning to Giles: Mr. Putnam states your charge is a lie. What say you +to that? + +Giles , furious, his fists clenched: A fart on Thomas Putnam, that is what I say to +that! + +DANFoRth: What proof do you submit for your charge, sir? + +Giles: My proof is there! Pointing to the paper. If Jacobs hangs for a witch he +forfeit up his property - that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the; coin +to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land! + +Danforth: But proof, sir, proof. + +Giles, pointing at his deposition: The proof is there! I have it from an honest +man who heard Putnam say it! The day his daughter cried out on Jacobs, he said +she’d given him a fair gift of land. + +Hathome: And the name of this man? + +Giles, taken aback: What name? + +Hathome: The man that give you this information. + +Giles, hesitates, then: Why, I - 1 cannot give you his name. + + +Hathome: And why not? + + + +Act Three + + +97 + + +Giles, hesitates, then bursts out: You know well why not! He’ll lay in jail if I give his +name! + +Hathome: This is contempt of the court, Mr. Danforth! + +Danforth, to avoid that: Y ou will surely tell us the name. + +Giles: I will not give you no name, I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll +bum in hell long enough for that. I stand mute. + +Danforth: In that case, I have no choice but to arrest you for contempt of this +court, do you know that? + +Giles: This is a hearing; you cannot clap me for contempt of a hearing. + +Danforth: Oh, it is a proper lawyer! Do you wish me to declare the court in full +session here? Or will you give me good reply? + +Giles , faltering: I cannot give you no name, sir, I cannot. + +Danforth: You are a foolish old man. Mr. Cheever, begin the record. The court +is now in session. I ask you, Mr. Corey - + +Proctor, breaking in: Your Honor - he has the story in confi-dence, sir, and he - + +Parris: The Devil lives on such confidences! To Danforth: Without confidences +there could be no conspiracy, Your Honor! + +Hathome. I think it must be broken, sir. + +DANFoRTH, to Giles: Old man, if your informant tells the truth let him come +here openly like a decent man. But if he hide in anonymity I must know why. +Now sir, the government and central church demand of you the name of him +who reported Mr. Thomas Putnam a common murderer. + +Hale: Excellency - +Danforth: Mr. Hale. + + + +98 + + +The Crucible + + +Hale: We cannot blink it more. There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country - + +DANFoRth: Then there is a prodigious guilt m the country. Are you afraid to be +questioned here? + +Flale: I may only fear the Lord, sir, bat there is fear in the country nevertheless. + +Danforth, angered now: 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! + +Hale: But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it. + +Danforth; No uncorrupted man may fear this court, Mr. Hale! None! To Giles: +You are under arrest in contempt of this court. Now sit you down and take +counsel with yourself, or you will be set in the jail until you decide to answer all +questions. + +Giles Corey makes a rush for Putnam. Proctor lunges and holds him. + +Proctor: No, Giles! + +Giles, over Proctor’s shoulder at Putnam: I’ll cut your throat, Putnam, I’ll kill +you yet! + +Proctor , forcing him into a chair: Peace, Giles, peace. Re-leasing him. We’ll +prove ourselves. Now we will. He starts to turn to Danforth. + +Giles: Say nothin’ more, John. Pointing at Danforth: He’s only playin’ you! He +means to hang us all! + +Maty Warren bursts into sobs. + +Danforth: This is a court of law, Mister. I’ll have no effron-tery here! + +Proctor: Forgive him, sir, for his old age. Peace, Giles, we’ll prove it all now. +He lifts up Mary ’s chin. You cannot weep. + + + +Act Three + + +99 + + +Mary. Remember the angel, what he say to the boy. Hold to it, now; there is your rock. +Maty quiets. He takes out a paper, and turns to Danforth. This is Mary Warren’s +deposition. I - 1 would ask you remember, sir, while you read it, that until two week ago +she were no different than the other children are today. He is speaking reasonably, +restraining all his fears, his anger, his anxiety. 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 hex soul away, and then when she refused - + +Danforth: We know all this. + +Proctor: Aye, sir. She swears now that she never saw Satan; nor any spirit, vague or +clear, that Satan may have sent to hurt her. And she declares her friends are lying now. + +Proctor starts to hand Danforth the deposition, and Hale comes up to Danforth in a +trembling state. + +Hale: Excellency, a moment. I think this goes to the heart of the matter. + +Danforth, with deep misgivings: It surely does. + +Hale: I cannot say he is an honest man; I know him little. But in all justice, sir, a claim +so weighty cannot be argued by a farmer. In God’s name, sir, stop here; send him home +and let him come again with a lawyer - + +Danforth , patiently: Now look you, Mr. Hale - + +Hale: Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, +and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of +conscience may doubt it. + +Danforth: Mr. Hale, you surely do not doubt my justice. + +Hale: I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca + + + +1 00 The Crucible + + +Nurse, Your Honor. I’ll not conceal it, my hand shakes yet as with a wound! I +pray you, sir, this argument let lawyers present to you. + +Danforth: Mr. Hale, believe me; for a man of such terrible learning you are most +bewildered - 1 hope you will forgive me. I have been thirty-two year at the bar, +sir, and I should be con-founded were I called upon to defend these people. Let +you consider, now - To Proctor and the others: And I bid you all do likewise. In +an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to +prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, +an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The +witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse +herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, +the children certainly do testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are +most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring +out? I think I have made my point. Have I not? + +Hale: But this child claims the girls are not truthful, and if they are not - + +Danforth: That is precisely what I am about to consider, sir. What more may +you ask of me? Unless you doubt my probity? + +Hale, defeated: I surely do not, sir. Let you consider it, then. + +Danforth: And let you put your heart to rest. Her deposition, Mr. Proctor. + +Proctor hands it to him. Hathorne rises, goes beside Danforth, and starts +reading. Parris comes to his other side. Danforth looks at John Proctor, then +proceeds to read. Hale gets up, finds position near the judge, reads too. Proctor +glances at Giles. Francis prays silently, hands pressed together. Cheever waits +placidly, the sublime official, dutiful. Mary > Warren sobs once. John Proctor +touches her head reassuringly. Presently Danforth + + + +Act Three + + +101 + + +lifts his eyes, stands up, takes out a kerchief and blows his nose. The others stand aside +as he moves in thought toward the window. + +Parris, hardly able to contain his anger and fear: I should like to question - + +DANFoRtH - his first real outburst, in which his contempt for Parris is clear: +Mr. Parris, 1 bid you be silent! He stands in silence, looking out the window. +Now, having established that he will set the gait: Mr. Cheever, will you go into +the court and bring the children here? Cheever gets up and goes out up-stage. +Danforth now turns to Man /. Mary Warren, how came you to this turnabout? +Has Mr. Proctor threatened you for this deposition? + +Mary Warren: No, sir. + + +Danforth: Has he ever threatened you? + +Mary Warren, weaker: No, sir. + +Danforth, sensing a weakening: Has he threatened you?- +Mary Warren: No, sir. + +Danforth: Then you tell me that you sat in my court, cal-lously lying, when you +knew that people would hang by your evidence? She does not answer. Answer +me! + +Mary Warken, almost inaudibly: 1 did, sir. + +Danforth: How were you instructed in your life? Do you not know that God +damns all liars? She cannot speak. Or is it now that you lie'! + +Mary Warren: No, sir - 1 am with God now. + +Danforth: Y ou are with God now. + + +Mary Warren: Aye, sir. + + + +102 + + +The Crucible + + +Danforth, containing himself: 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. You cannot lightly say you lied, Mary. Do you know that? + +Mary Warren: I cannot lie no more. I am with God, I am with God. + +But she breaks into sobs at the thought of it, and the right door opens, and enter +Susanna Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris, and finally Abigail. Cheever +comes to Danforth. + +CHEEvER: Ruth Putnam’s not in the court, sir, nor the other children. + +Danforth: These will be sufficient. Sit you down, children. Silently they sit. +Your friend, Mary Warren, has given us a deposition. In which she swears that +she never saw familiar spirits, apparitions, nor any manifest of the Devil. She +claims as well that none of you have seen these things either. Slight pause. +Now, children, this is a court of law. The law, based upon the Bible, and the +Bible, writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and describe +death as the penalty thereof. But likewise, children, the law and Bible damn all +bearers of false witness. Slight pause. Now then. It does not escape me that this +deposition may be devised to blind us; it may well be that Mary Warren has +been conquered by Satan, who sends her here to distract our sacred purpose. If +so, her neck will break for it. But if she speak true, I bid you now drop your +guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you. +Pause. Abigail Williams, rise, Abigail slowly rises. Is there any truth in this? + + +Abigail: No, sir. + +Danforth, thinks, glances at Maty, then back to Abigail: Chil-dren, a very augur +bit will now be turned into your souls until + + + +Act Three + + +103 + + +your honesty is proved. Will either of you change your positions now, or do you force me to +hard questioning? + +Abigail: 1 have naught to change, sir. She lies. + +Danforth. to Mary: Y ou would still go on with this? + +Mary W arren, faintly: Aye, sir. + +Danforth, turning to Abigail: A poppet were discovered in Mr. Proctor’s house, stabbed +by a needle. Mary Warren claims that you sat beside her in the court when she made it, +and that you saw her make it and witnessed how she herself stuck her needle into it for +safe -keeping. What say you to that? + +Abigail, with a slight note of indignation: It is a lie, sir. + +Danforth, after a slight pause: While you worked for Mr. Proctor, did you see poppets +in that house? + +Abigail: Goody Proctor always kept poppets. + +Proctor: Your Honor, my wife never kept no poppets. Mary Warren confesses it was +her poppet. + +Cheever: Y our Excellency. Danforth: Mr. + +Cheever. + +Cheever: When I spoke with Goody Proctor in that house, she said she never kept no +poppets. But she said she did keep poppets when she were a girl. + +Proctor: She has not been a girl these fifteen years, Y our Honor. + +Hathome: But a poppet will keep fifteen years, will it not? + +Proctor: It will keep i£ it is kept, but Mary Warren swears she never saw no poppets in +my house, nor anyone else. + + + +1 04 The Crucible + +Parris: Why could there not have been poppets hid where no one ever saw +them? + +Proctor, furious: There might also be a dragon with five legs in my house, but +no one has ever seen it. + +Parris: We are here, Your Honor, precisely to discover what no one has ever +seen. + +Proctor: Mr. Danforth, what profit this girl to turn herself about? What may +Mary Warren gain but hard questioning and worse? + +Danforth: You are charging Abigail William s with a mar-velous cool plot to +murder, do you understand that? + +Proctor: I do, sir. I believe she means to murder. + +Danforth, pointing at Abigail, incredulously: This child would murder your +wife? + +Proctor: It is not a child. Now hear me, sir. In the sight of the congregation she +were twice this year put out of this meetin’ house for laughter during prayer. + +Danforth, shocked, turning to Abigail: What’s this? Laughter during - ! + +Parris: Excellency, she were under Tituba’s power at that time, but she is +solemn now. + +GiLEs: Aye, now she is sole mn and goes to hang people! Danforth: Quiet, man. + +Hathome: Surely it have no bearing on the question, sir. He charges +contemplation of murder. + +Danforth: Aye. He studies Abigail for a moment, then: Con-tinue, Mr. Proctor. + + +Proctor: Mary. Now tell the Governor how you danced in the woods. + + + +Act Three + + +105 + + +Parris, instantly: Excellency, since I come to Salem this man is blackening my name. He - + +Danforth: In a moment, sir. To Man / Warren, sternly, and surprised: What is this +dancing? + +Mary Warren: I - She glances at Abigail, who is staring down at her remorselessly. +Then, appealing to Proctor: Mr. Proctor - + +Proctor, taking it right up: Abigail leads the girls to the woods, Your Honor, and they +have danced there naked - + +Parris: Your Honor, this - + +Proctor, at once: Mr. Parris discovered them himself in the dead of night! There’s the +“child” she is! + +Danforth - it is growing into a nightmare, and he turns, as-tonished, to Parris: Mr. +Parris - + +Parris: I can only say, sir, that I never found any of them naked, and this man is - + +Danforth: But you discovered them dancing in the woods? Eyes on Parris, he points at +Abigail. Abigail? + +Hale: Excellency, when I first arrived from Beverly, Mr. Parris told me that. + +Danforth: Do you deny it, Mr. Parris? + +Parris: I do not, sir, but I never saw any of them naked. + +Danforth: But she have danced? + +Parris, unwillingly: Aye, sir. + +Danforth, as though with new eyes, looks at Abigail. + +Hathome: Excellency, will you permit me? Pie points at Maty Warren. + +Danforth, with great worry: Pray, proceed. + + + +106 + + +The Crucible + + +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. + +Mary Warren, very faintly: No, sir. + +Hathorne, with a gleam of victory’: And yet, when people ac-cused of witchery +confronted you in court, you would faint, saying their spirits came out of their +bodies and choked you - + +Mary Warren: That were pretense, sir. + +Danforth: I cannot hear you. + +Mary Warren: Pretense, sir. + +Parris: But you did turn cold, did you not? I myself picked you up many times, +and your skin were icy, Mr. Danforth, you - + +Danforth: I saw that many times. + +Proctor: She only pretended to faint, Your Excellency. They’re all marvelous +pretenders. + +Hathorne: Then can she pretend to faint now? Proctor: Now? + +Parris: Why not? Now there are no spirits attacking her, for none in this room is +accused of witchcraft. So let her turn herself cold now, let her pretend she is +attacked now, let her faint. He turns to Mary Warren. Faint! + +Mary Warren: Faint? + +Parris: Aye, faint. Prove to us how you pretended in the court so many times. +MARy Warren, looking to Proctor: I - cannot faint now, sir. Proctor, alarmed, +quietly: Can you not pretend it? + + + +Act Three + + +107 + + +Mary Warren: I - She looks about as though searching for the passion to faint. I - have + +no sense of it now, I - + +DANFoRrth: Why? What is lacking now? + +MARY Warren: I - cannot tell, sir, I - + +Danforth: Might it be that here we have no afflicting spirit loose, but in the +court there were some? + +Mary Warren: I never saw no spirits. + +PARRis: Then see no spirits now, and prove to us that you can faint by your +own will, as you claim. + +Mary Warren, stares, searching for the emotion of it, and then shakes her head: +I - cannot do it. + +Parris: Then you will confess, will you not? It were attacking spirits made you +faint! + +Mary Warren: No, sir, I - + +Parris: Your Excellency, this is a trick to blind the court! + +Mary Warren: It’s not a trick! She stands. I - 1 used to faint because I - 1 thought +I saw spirits. + +Danforth: Thought you saw them! + +Mary Warren: But I did not, Your Honor. + +Hathome: How could you think you saw them unless you saw them? + +Mary Warren: I - I cannot tell how, but I did. I - I heard the other girls +screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I - It were +only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, +and I - 1 promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not. + + +Danforth peers at her. + + + +108 The Crucible + + +PARRIs, smiling, but nervous because Danforth seems to be struck by Maty +Warren ’s story: Surely Your Excellency is not taken by this simple lie. + +Danforth, turning worriedly to Abigail: Abigail. 1 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 - + +Abigail: Why, this - this - is a base question, sir. + +Danforth: Child, I would have you consider it - + +Abigail: I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin’ out! I +have been near to murdered every day because 1 done my duty pointing out the +Devil’s people - and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned +like a - + +Danforth, weakening: Child, I do not mistrust you - + +Abigial, in an open threat: Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so +mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it! There is - +Suddenly, from an accusa-toiy attitude, her face turns, looking into the ait- +above - it is truly frightened. + +Danforth, apprehensively: What is it, child? + +Abigail, looking about in the air, clasping her arms about her as though cold: I +- 1 know not. A wind, a cold wind, has come. Her eyes fall on Man i Warren. + +Mary Warren, terrified, pleading: Abby! + +Mercy Lewis, shivering: Your Honor, I freeze! + +Proctor: They’re pretending! + + + +Act Three + + +109 + + +Hathorne, touching Abigail’s hand: She is cold. Your Honor, touch her! + +Mercy Lewis, through chattering teeth: Mary, do you send this shadow on me? +Mary Warren: Lord, save me! + +Susanna Walcott: I freeze, I freeze! + +Abigail, shivering visibly: It is a wind, a wind! + +MARY Warren: Abby, don’t do that! + +Danforth, himself engaged and entered by Abigail: Mary Warren, do you witch +her? I say to you, do you send your spirit out? + +With a hysterical cry > Maty Warren starts to run. Proctor catches her. + +Mary Warren, almost collapsing: Let me go, Mr. Proctor, I cannot, I cannot - + +Abigail, crying to Heaven: Oh, Heavenly Father, take away this shadow! + +without warning or hesitation, Proctor leaps at Abigail and, grabbing her by +the hair, pulls her to her feet. She screams in pain. Danforth, astonished, cries, +“What are you about?’’ and Hathorne and Parris call, “Take your hands op +her!” and out of it all comes Proctor’s roaring voice. + +PRocToR: How do you call Heaven! Whore! Whore! + +Herrick breaks Proctor from her. + +Herrick: John! + +DAnFoRTH: Man! Man, what do you - + + + +110 The Crucible + +Proctor, breathless and in agony: It is a whore! Danforth, dumfounded: + +You charge - ? Abigail: Mr. Danforth, he is lying! + +Proctor: Mark her! Now she’ll suck a scream to stab me with, but - + +Danforth: You will prove this! This will not pass! + +Proctor, trembling, his life collapsing about him: I have known her, sir. I have +known her. + +Danforth: You - you are a lecher? + +Francis, horrified: John, you cannot say such a - + +Proctor: Oh, Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me! To +Danforth: A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that. + +Danforth, dumfounded: In - in what time? In what place? + +Proctor, his voice about to break, and his shame great: In the proper place - where my +beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past. She used to +serve me in my house, sir. He has to clamp his jaw to keep from weeping. A man may +think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, 1 beg you - see +her what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her +out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir - He is being +overcome. Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. An-grily against himself he turns away +from the Governor for a moment. Then, as though to cry > out is his only means of speech +left: She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought +of her softly. God help me, t lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a +whore’s venge-ance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands, I know you +must see it now. + + + +Act Three + + +111 + + +Danforth, blanched, in horror, turning to Abigail: You deny every scrap and tittle of +this? + +Aalu.: If I must answer that, I will leave and I will not come back again! +Danforth seems unsteady. + +Proctor: 1 have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good +name - you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she +knew a whore when she saw one! + +Abigail, stepping up to Danforth: What look do you give me? Danforth cannot +speak. I’ll not have such looks! She turns and starts for the door. + +Danforth: You will remain where you are! Herrick steps into her path. She +comes up short, fire in her eyes. Mr. Parris, go into the court and bring +Goodwife Proctor out. + +Parris, objecting: Y our Honor, this is all a - + +Danforth, sharply to Parris: Bring her out! And tell her not one word of what’s +been spoken here. And let you knock before you enter. Parris goes out. Now we +shall touch the bottom of this swamp. To Proctor: Your wife, you say, is an +honest woman. + +Proctor: In her life, sir, she have never lied. There are them that cannot sing, and +them that cannot weep - my wife cannot lie. I have paid much to learn it, sir. + +Danforth: And when she put this girl out of your house, she put her out for a +harlot? + +Proctor: Aye, sir. + +Danforth: And knew her for a harlot? + +Proctor: Aye, sir, she knew her for a harlot. + +Danforth: Good then. To Abigail: And if she tell me, child. + + + +112 The Crucible + + +it were for harlotry, may God spread His mercy on you! There is a knock. He calls to the +door. Hold! To Abigail: Turn your back. Turn your back. To Proctor: Do likewise. Both +turn their backs - Abigail with indignant slowness. Now let neither of you turn to face +Goody Proctor. No one in this room is to speak one word, or raise a gesture aye or nay. +He turns toward the door, calls: Enter! The door opens. Elizabeth enters with Parris. +Parris leaves her. She stands alone, her eyes looking for Proctor. Mr. Cheever, report +this testimony in all exactness. Are you ready? + +Cheever: Ready, sir. + +Danforth: Come here, woman. Elizabeth comes to him, glanc-ing at Proctor's back. +Look at me only, not at your husband. In my eyes only. + +Elizabeth, faintly: Good, sir. + +Danforth: We are given to understand that at one time you dismissed your servant, +Abigail Williams. + +Elizabeth: That is true, sir. + +Danforth: For what cause did you dismiss her? Slight pause. Then Elizabeth tries to +glance at Proctor. Y ou will look in my eyes only and not at your husband. The answer +is in your memory and you need no help to give it to me. Why did you dismiss Abigail +William s ? + +Elizabeth, not knowing what to say, sensing a situation, wetting her lips to stall for time: +She - dissatisfied me. Pause. And my husband. + +Danforth: In what way dissatisfied you? + +Elizabeth: She were - She glances at Proctor for a cue. + +Danforth: Woman, look at me! Elizabeth does. Were she slovenly? Lazy? What +disturbance did she cause? + + + +Act Three 113 + +Elizabeth: Y our Honor, I - in that time I were sick. And I - My husband is a good and +righteous man. He is never drunk as some are, nor wastin’ his time at the shovelboard, +but always at his work. But in my sickness - you see, sir, I were a long time sick after +my last baby, and I thought I saw my husband somewhat turning from me. And this girl +- She turns to Abigail. + +Danforth: Look at me. + +Elizabeth: Aye, sir. Abigail William s - She breaks op. + +Danforth: What of Abigail Williams? + +Elizabeth: 1 came to think he fancied her. And so one night I lost my wits, I think, and +put her out on the highroad. + +Danforth: Y our husband - did he indeed turn from you? + +Elizabeth, in agony: My husband - is a goodly man, sir. + +Danforth: Then he did not turn from you. + +Elizabeth, starting to glance at Proctor: He - + +Danforth, reaches out and holds her face, then: Look at me! To your own knowledge, +has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? In a crisis of indecision she +cannot speak, Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher! + +Elizabeth, faintly: No, sir. + +Danforth: Remove her, Marshal. + +Proctor: Elizabeth, tell the truth! + +Danforth: She has spoken. Remove her! + +Proctor, ciying out: Elizabeth, I have confessed it! + +Elizabeth: Oh, God! The door closes behind her. + +Proctor: She only thought to save my name! + + + +114 The Crucible + + +Hale: Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell; I beg you, stop now before another is +condemned! 1 may shut my conscience to it no more - private vengeance is working +through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to +Heaven, I believe him now, and 1 pray you call back his wife before we - + +Danforth: She spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied' + +Hale: 1 believe him! Pointing at Abigail: This girl has always struck me false! She has - +Abigail, with a weird, wild, chilling cry:, screams up to the ceiling. + +Abigail: You will not! Begone! Begone, I say! + +Danforth: What is it, child? But Abigail, pointing with fear, is now raising up her +frightened eyes, her awed face, toward the ceiling - the girls are doing the same - and +now Hathorne, Hale, Putnam, Cheever, Herrick, and Danforth do the same. What’s +there? He lowers his eyes from the ceiling, and now he is fright-ened; there is real +tension in his voice. Child! She is transfixed - with all the girls, she is whimpering +open-mouthed, agape at the ceiling. Girls! Why do you - ? + +Mercy Lewis, pointing: It’s on the beam! Behind the rafters + +Danforth, looking up: Where! + +Abigail: Why - ? She gulps. Why do you come, yellow bird? + +Proctor: Where’s a bird? I see no bird! + +Abigail, to the ceiling: My face? My face? + +Proctor: Mr. Hale - +Danforth: Be quiet! + +Proctor, to Hale: Do you see a bird? + + + +Danforth: Be quiet! ! + +Act Three 115 + +Abigail, to the ceiling, in a genuine conversation with the “bird,. ” as though trying to +talk it out of attacking her: But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. +Envy is a deadly sin, Mary. + +Mary Warren, on her feet with a spring, and horrified, plead-ing: Abby! + +Abigail, unperturbed, continuing to the “bird”: Oh, Mary, this is a black art to +change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do. + +Mary Warren: Abby, I’m here! + +Proctor, frantically: They’re pretending, Mr. Danforth! + +Abigail - now she takes a backward step, as though in fear the bird will swoop +down momentarily: Oh, please, Mary! Don’t come down. + +Susanna Walcott: Her claws, she’s stretching her claws! + +Proctor: Lies, lies. + +Abigail, backing further , eyes still fixed above: Mary, please don’t hurt me! +Mary Warren, to Danforth: I’m not hurting her! + +Danforth, to Maty Warren: Why does she see this vision? + +Mary Warren: She sees nothin’! + +Abigail, now staring full front as though hypnotized, and mimicking the exact +tone of Maty Warren ’s cry: She sees nothin’ ! + +Mary Warren, pleading: Abby, you mustn’t! + +Abigail AND All THE Girls, all transfixed: Abby, you mustn’t! + + +MARY Warren, to all the girls: I’m here, I'm here! + + + +1 1 6 The Crucible + + +Girls: I’m here, I’m here! + +DAnFoRth, horrified: Mary Warren! Draw back your spirit out of them! + +Mary Warren: Mr. Danforth! + +GiRLs, cutting her op: Mr. Danforth! + +Danforth: Have you compacted with the Devil? Have you? + +Mary Warren: Never, never! + +Girls: Never, never! + +Danforth, growing hysterical: Why can they only repeat you? + +PRoctoR: Give me a whip - I’ll stop it! + +Mary Warren: They’re sporting. They - ! + +Girls: They’re sporting! + +.Mary Warren, turning on them all hysterically and stamping her feet: Abby, +stop it! + +Girls, stamping their feet: Abby, stop it! + +Mary Warren: Stop it! + +Girls: Stop it! + +Mary Warren, screaming it out at the top of her lungs, and raising her fists: + +Stop it! ! + +Girls, raising their fists: Stop it! ! + +Maty Warren, utterly confounded, and becoming overwhelmed by Abigail 's - +and the girls ’ - utter conviction, starts to whimper, hands half raised, powerless, +and all the girls begin whimpering exactly as she does. + +Danforth: A little while ago you were afflicted. Now it seems you afflict others; +where did you find this power? + + + +Act Three Mary WARREN, staring at Abigail: I - have no power. Girls: I have no power. Proctor: They’re gulling you. +Mister! 117 + +Danforth: Why did you turn about this past two weeks? You have seen the Devil, have +you not? + +Hale, indicating Abigail and the girls: You cannot believe them! - +Mary Warren: I - + +Proctor, sensing her weakening: Mary, God damns all liars! + +Danforth, pounding it into her: You have seen the Devil, you have made +compact with Lucifer, have you not? + +Proctor: God damns liars, Mary! + +Maty utters something unintelligible, staring at Abigail, who keeps watching the +“bird” above. + +Danforth: I cannot hear you. What do you say? Maty utters again unintelligibly +You will confess yourself or you will hang! He turns her roughly to face him. + +Do you know who I am? I say you will hang if you do not open with me! + +Proctor: Mary, remember the angel Raphael - do that which is good and - + +Abigail, pointing upward: The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, +don’t, don’t - ! + +Hale: I see nothing, Your Honor! + +Danforth: Do you confess this power! He is an inch from her face. Speak! + +Abigail: She’s going to come down! She’s walking the beam! + + +Danforth: Will you speak! + + + +118 + + +The Crucible + + +Mary Warren, staring in horror: I cannot! Girls: I cannot! + +Parris: Cast the Devil out! Look him in the face! Trample him! We’ll save you, + +Mary, only stand fast against him and - + +Abigail, looking up: Look out! She’s coming down! + +She and all the girls run to one wall, shielding their eyes. And now, as though cornered, +they let out a gigantic scream, and Maty, as though infected, opens her mouth and +screams with them. Gradually Abigail and the girls leave op, until only Maty is left +there, staring up at the “bird, ” screaming madly. All watch her, horrified by this evident +fit. Proctor strides to her. + +Proctor: Mary, tell the Governor what they - He has hardly got a word out, when, seeing +him coming for her, she rushes out of his reach, screaming in horror, + +Mary Warren: Don’t touch me - don’t touch me! At which the girls halt at the door. + +Proctor, astonished: Mary! + +Mary Warren, pointing at Proctor: You’re the Devil’s man! + +He is stopped in his tracks. + +Parris: Praise God! + +Girls: Praise God! + +Proctor, numbed: Mary, how - ? + +Mary Warren: I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God. + +Danforth, to Mary: He bid you do the Devil’s work? + +Mary Warren, hysterically, indicating Proctor: He come at me by night and every day +to sign, to sign, to - + + +Danforth: Sign what? + + + +Act Three Parris: The Devil’s book? He come with a book? 119 + +Mary Warren, hysterically, pointing at Proctor, fearful of him: My name, he want my name. “I’ll +murder you,” he says, “if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court,” he says! + +Danforth ’s head jerks toward Proctor, shock and horror in his face. + +Proctor, turning, appealing to Hale: Mr. Hale! + +Mary Warren, her sobs beginning: He wake me every night, his eyes were like coals +and his fingers claw my neck, and I sign, I sign... + +Hale: Excellency, this child’s gone wild! + +Proctor, as Danforth ’s wide eyes pour on him: Mary, Mary! + +Mary Warren, screaming at him: No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I +bless God. Sobbing, she rushes to Abigail. Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more! They +all watch, as Abigail, out of her infinite charity, reaches out and draws the sobbing +Maty to her, and then looks up to Danforth. + +Danforth, to Proctor: What are you? Proctor is beyond speech in his anger. You are +combined with anti-Christ, are you not? I have seen your power; you will not deny it! +What say you, Mister? + +Hale: Excellency - + +Danforth: I will have nothing from you, Mr. Hale! To Proctor: Will you confess +yourself befouled with Hell, or do you keep that black allegiance yet? What say you? + +Proctor, his mind wild, breathless: I say - 1 say - God is dead' + +Parris: Hear it, hear it! + + +Proctor, laughs insanely, then: A fire, a fire is burning! I hear + + + +120 + + +The Crucible + + +the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For +them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now +when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud - God damns our kind +especially, and we will burn, we will burn together! + +Danforth: Marshal! Take him and Corey with him to the jail! + +Hale, starting across to the door: I denounce these proceedings! + +Proctor: You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore! + +Hale: I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court! He slams the door to the +outside behind him. + +Danforth, calling to him in a fury: Mr. Hale! Mr. Hale! + +THE CURTAIN FALLS + + + +ACT FOUR + + +A cell in Salem jail , that fall. + +At the back is a high barred window; near it, a great, heavy door. Along the +walls are two benches. + +The place is in darkness but for the moonlight seeping through the bars. It +appears empty. Presently footsteps are heard com-ing down a corridor beyond +the wall, keys rattle, and the door swings open. Marshal Herrick enters with a +lantern. + +He is nearly drunk, and heavy-footed. He goes to a bench and nudges a bundle +of rags lying on it. + +Herrick: Sarah,, wake up! Sarah Good! He then crosses to the other bench. + +Sarah Good, rising in her rags: Oh, Majesty! Cornin’, cornin’! Tituba, he’s +here, His Majesty’s come! + +HERRicK.: Go to the north cell; this place is' wanted now. He hangs his lantern +on the wall. Tituba sits up. + + +Tituba: That don’t look to me like His Majesty; look to me like the marshal. +Herrick, taking out a ask: Get along with you now, clear this 121 + + + +Act Four + +Herrick, grabbing Tituba: Come along, come along. +Tituba, resisting him: No, he cornin’ for me. I goin' home! + + +123 + + +Herrick, pulling her to the door: That’s not Satan, just a poor old cow with a hatful of +milk. Come along now, out with you! + +Tituba, calling to the window: Take me home, Devil! Take me home! + +Sarah Good, following the shouting Tituba out: Tell him I’m goin’, Tituba! +Now you tell him Sarah Good is goin’ too! + +In the corridor outside Tituba calls on - “Take me home, Devil; Devil take me +home!” and Hopkins ’ voice orders her to move on. Herrick returns and begins +to push old rags and straw into a corner. Hearing footsteps, he turns, and enter +Danforth and Judge Hathorne. They are in greatcoats and wear hats against +the bitter cold. They are followed in by Cheever, who carries a dispatch case +and a flat wooden box containing his writing materials. + +HERRick Good morning, Excellency. Danforth: Where is Mr. + +Parris? + +Herrick: I’ll fetch him. He starts for the door. + +Danforth: Marshal. Herrick stops. When did Reverend Hale arrive? + +Herrick: It were toward midnight, I think. + +Danforth, suspiciously: %hat is he about here? + +Herrick: He goes among them that will hang, sir. And he prays with them. He +sits with Goody Nurse now. And Mr. Parris with him. + +Danforth: Indeed. That man have no authority to enter here, Marshal. Why have +you let him in? + + + +124 The Crucible + +Herrick: Why, Mr. Parris command me, sir. I cannot deny him. Danforth: Are +you drunk, Marshal? + +Herrick: No, sir; it is a bitter night, and I have no fire here. Danforth, containing +his anger: Fetch Mr. Parris. + +Herrick: Aye, sir. + +Danforth: There is a prodigious stench in this place. + +Herrick: I have only now cleared the people out for you. + +Danforth: Beware hard drink, Marshal. + +Herrick: Aye, sir. He waits an instant for further orders. But Danforth, in +dissatisfaction, turns his back on him, and Herrick goes out. There is a pause. +Danforth stands in thought. + +Hathome: Let you question Hale, Excellency; I should not be surprised he have +been preaching in Andover lately. + +Danforth: We’ll come to that; speak nothing of Andover. Parris prays with him. +That’s strange. He blows on his hands, moves toward the window, and looks +out. + +Hathome: Excellency, I wonder if it be wise to let Mr. Parris so continuously +with the prisoners. Danforth turns to him, inter-ested. I think, sometimes, the +man has a mad look these days. + +Danforth: Mad? + +Hathome: 1 met him yesterday coming out of his house, and I bid him good +morning - and he wept and went his way. I think it is not well the village sees +him so unsteady. + +Danforth: Perhaps he have some sorrow. + +Cheever, stamping his feet against the cold: I think it be the cows, sir. + + +Danforth: Cows? + + + +Act Four + + +125 + + +Cheever: There be so many cows wanderin’ the highroads, now their masters are in the +jails, and much disagreement who they will belong to now. I know Mr. Parris be +arguin’ with farmers all yesterday - there is great contention, sir, about the cows. +Contention make him weep, sir; it were always a man that weep for contention. He +turns, as do Hathorne and Danforth, hearing someone coming up the corridor. +Danforth raises his head as Parris enters. He is gaunt, frightened, and sweating in his +greatcoat. + +Parris, to Danforth, instantly: Oh, good morning, sir, thank you +' for coming, 1 beg your pardon wakin’ you so early. Good mom-ing, Judge Flathorne. + +Danforth: Reverend Flale have no right to enter this - + +Parris: Excellency, a moment. He hurries back and shuts the door. + +Flathorne: Do you leave him alone with the prisoners? + +Danforth: What’s his business here? + +Parris, prayerfully holding up his hands: Excellency, hear me. It is a providence. +Reverend Flale has returned to bring Rebecca Nurse to God. + +Danforth, surprised: Fie bids her confess? + +Parris, sitting: Flear me. Rebecca have not given me a word this three month 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 think on +whether it be not wise, to - He dares not ’ + + + +126 The Crucible + +say it. I had thought to put a question, sir, and I hope you will not - +Danforth: Mr. Parris, be plain, what troubles you? + +Parris: There is news, sir, that the court - the court must reckon with. My niece, +sir, my niece - 1 believe she has van-ished. + +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. You see, sir, she told me she would stay a night +with Mercy Lewis. And next day, when she does not return, I send to Mr. Lewis +to inquire. Mercy told him she would sleep in my house for a night. + +Danforth: They are both gone?! + +Parris, in fear of him: They are, sir. + +Danforth, alarmed: I will send a party for them. Where may they be? + +Parris: Excellency, I think they be aboard a ship. Danforth stands agape. My +daughter tells me how she heard them speaking of ships last week, and tonight I +discover my - my strongbox is broke into. He presses his fingers against his +eyes to keep back tears. + +Hathome, astonished: She have robbed you? + +Parris: Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless. He covers his face and sobs. + + +Danforth: Mr. Parris, you are a brainless man! He walks in thought, deeply +worried. + + + +Act Four + + +127 + + +Parris: Excellency, it profit nothing you should blame me. I cannot think they would run +off except they fear to keep in Salem any more. He is pleading. 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: 1 am sure of it, sir. But the rumor here speaks rebellion in Andover, and +it - + + +Danforth: There is no rebellion in Andover! + +Parris: 1 tell you what is said 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. + +Hathome: Riot! Why at every execution I have seen naught but high satisfaction +in the town. + +Parris: Judge Hathome - 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 jet +in the town. Let Rebecca stand upon the gibbet and send up some righteous +prayer, and I fear she’ll wake a vengeance on +you. + +Hathome: Excellency, she is condemned a witch. The court have - + +Danforth, in deep concern, raising a hand to Hathome: Pray you. To Parris: +How do you propose, then? + +Parris: Excellency, I would postpone these hangin’s for a time. Danforth: There +will be no postponement. + + + +128 The Crucible + +Parris: Now Mr. 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 more that they are all linked to Hell. This way, unconfessed +and claiming innocence, doubts are multiplied, many honest people will weep +for them, and our good purpose is lost in their tears. + +Danforth, after thinking a moment, then going to Cheever: Give me the list. +Cheever opens the dispatch case, searches. + +Parris: It cannot be forgot, sir, that when I summoned the con-gregation for +John Proctor’s excommnnication there were hardly thirty people come to hear +it. That speak a discontent, I think, and - + +Danforth, studying the list: There will be no postponement. + +Parris: Excellency - + +Danforth: Now, sir - which of these in your opinion may be brought to God? 1 +will myself strive with him till dawn. He hands she list to Parris, who merely +glances at it. + +Parris: There is not sufficient time till dawn. + +Danforth: I shall do my utmost. Which of them do you have hope for? + +Parris, not even glancing at the list now, and in a quavering voice, quietly: +Excellency - a dagger - He chokes up. + +DANFoRth: What do you say? + +Parris: Tonight, when 1 open my door to leave my house - a dagger clattered to +the ground. Silence. Danforth absorbs this. Now Parris cries out: You cannot +hang this sort. There is danger for me. I dare not step outside at night! + +Reverend Hale enters. They look at. him for an instant in silence- + + + +Act Four + + +129 + + +He is steeped in sorrow, exhausted, and more direct than he ever was. + +Danforth: Accept my congratulations, Reverend Hale; we are gladdened to see +you returned to your good work. + +Hale, coming to Danforth now: You must pardon them. They will not budge. +Herrick enters, waits. + +Danforth, conciliator) r. You misunderstand, sir; I cannot par-don these when +twelve are already hanged for the same crime. It is not just. + +Parris, with failing heart: Rebecca will not confess? + +HAr.E: The sun will rise in a few minutes. Excellency, I must have more time. + +Danforth: Now hear me, and beguile yourselves no more. I will not receive a +single plea for pardon or postponement. Them that will not confess will hang. +Twelve are already executed; the names of these seven are given out, and the +village expects to see them die this morning. Postponement now speaks a floun- +dering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them +that died till now. While 1 speak God’s law, I will not crack its voice with +whimpering. If retaliation is your fear, know this - I should hang ten thousand +that dared to rise against the law, and an ocean of salt tears could not melt the +resolution of the statutes. Now draw yourselves up like men and help me, as you +are bound by Heaven to do. Have you spoken with them all, Mr. Hale? + +Hale: All but Proctor. He is in the dungeon. + +Danforth, to Herrick: What’s Proctor’s way now? + +Herrick: He sits like some great bird; you’d not know he lived except he will +take food from time to time. + + + +130 The Crucible + + +Danforth, after thinking a moment: His wife - his wife must be well on with child now. +Herrick: She is, sir. + +Danforth: What think you, Mr. Parris? Y ou have closer knowledge of this man; might +her presence soften him? + +Parris: It is possible, sir. He have not laid eyes on her these three months. I should +summon her, + +' Danforth, to Herrick: Is he yet adamant? Has he struck at you again? + +Herrick: He cannot, sir, he is chained to the wall now. + +Danforth, after thinking on it: Fetch Goody Proctor to me. Then let you bring him up. +Herrick: Aye, sir. Herrick goes. There is silence. + +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. + +Danforth: Mr. 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. + +Hale, harder now: If you think God wills you to raise rebellion, Mr. Danforth, you are +mistaken! + +Danforth, instantly: You have heard rebellion spoken in the town? + +Hale: Excellency, there are orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle +bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere, and no man +knows when the harlots’ cry will end his life - and you wonder yet if rebellion’s spoke? +Better you should marvel how they do not bum your province! + + + +Act Four + + +131 + + +Danforth: Mr. Hale, have you preached in Andover this month? + +Hale: Thank God they have no need of me in Andover. + +Danforth; You baffle me, sir. Why have you returned here? + +Hale: Why, it is all simple. I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel +Christians they should belie themselves. His sarcasm collapses. There is blood +on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head! ! + +Parris: Hush! For he has heard footsteps. They all face the door. Herrick enters +with Elizabeth. Her wrists are linked by heavy chain, which Herrick now +removes. Her clothes are dirty; her face is pale and gaunt. Herrick goes out. + +Danforth, very politely: Goody Proctor. She is silent. I hope you are hearty? + +Elizabeth, as a warning reminder: I am yet six month before my time. + +Danforth: Pray be at your ease, we come not for your life. We - uncertain how +to plead, for he is not accustomed to it. Mr. Hale, will you speak with the +woman? + +Hale: Goody Proctor, your husband is marked to hang this morning, + +Pause. + +Elizabeth, quietly: I have heard it. + +Hale: You know, do you not, that I have no connection with the court? She +seems to doubt it. I come of my own, Goody Proctor. I would save your +husband’s life, for if he is taken I count myself hi: murderer. Do you understand +me? + + +Elizabeth: What do you want of me? + + + +132 + + +The Crucible + + +Hale: Goody Proctor, 1 have gone this three month like our Lord into the wilderness. I +have sought a Christian way, for damnation’s doubled on a minister who counsels men +to lie. + +Hathome: It is no lie, you cannot speak of lies. + +Hale: It is a lie! They are innocent! + +Danforth: I’ll hear no more of that! + +Hale, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my +own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of +high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with +my bright confi-dence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, +blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor - cleave to no faith when faith brings +blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s +most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I +beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. +Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar +less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him? I +cannot think he will listen to another. + +Elizabeth, quietly: I think that be the Devil’s argument. + +Hale, with a climactic desperation: Woman, before the laws of God we are as +swine! We cannot read His will! + +Elizabeth: 1 cannot dispute with you, sir; I lack learning for it. + +DANFoRth, going to her: Goody Proctor, you are not sum-moned here for +disputation. Be there no wifely tenderness within you? He will die with the +sunrise. Your husband. Do you under-stand it? She only looks at him. What say +you? Will you contend with him? She is silent. Are you stone? I tell you true, +woman, had I no other proof of your unnatural life, your dry eyes now would be +sufficient evidence that you delivered up your soul to + + + +Act Four + + +133 + + +Hell! A very ape would weep at such calamity! Have the devil dried up any tear of pity +in you? She is silent. Take her out. It profit nothing she should speak to him! + +Elizabeth, quietly: Let me speak with him, Excellency. + +Parris, with hope: You’ll strive with him? She hesitates. + +Danforth: Will you plead for his confession or will you not? + +Elizabeth: I promise nothing. Let me speak with him. + +A sound - the sibilance of dragging feet on stone. They turn. A pause. Herrick +enters with John Proctor. His wrists are chained. He is another man, bearded, +fdthy, his eyes misty as though webs had overgrown them. He halts inside the +doorway, his eye caught by the sight of Elizabeth. The emotion flowing between +them prevents anyone from speaking for an instant. Wow Hale, visibly affected, +goes to Danforth and speaks quietly. + +Hale: Pray, leave them, Excellency. + +Danforth, pressing Rale impatiently aside: Mr. Proctor, you have been notified, +have you not? Proctor is silent, staring at Elizabeth. I see light in the sky, +Mister; let you counsel with your wife, and may God help you turn your back +on Hell. Proctor is silent, staring at Elizabeth. + +Hale, quietly: Excellency, let - + +Danforth brushes past Hale and walks out. Hale follows. Cheever stands and +follows, Hathorne behind. Herrick goes. Parris, from a safe distance, avers: + +Parris: If you desire a cup of cider, Mr. Proctor, I am sure I - Proctor turns an +icy stare at him, and he breaks op. Parris raises his palms toward Proctor. God +lead you now. Parris goes + +Alone. Proctor walks to her, halts. It is as though they stood m a spinning +world. It is beyond sorrow, above i, ". He reaches out + + + +134 + + +The Crucible + + +his hand as though toward an embodiment not quite real, and as he touches her, a +strange soft sound, half laughter, half amazement, comes from his throat. He pats her +hand. She covers his hand with hers. And then, weak, he sits. Then she sits, facing him. + +Proctor: The child? + +Elizabeth: It Slows. + +Proctor: There is no word of the boys? + +Elizabeth: They’re well. Rebecca’s Samuel keeps them. + +Proctor: Y ou have not seen them? + +Elizabeth: I have not. She catches a weakening in herself and downs it. + +Proctor: Y ou are a - marvel, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth: You - have been tortured? + +Proctor: Aye. Pause. She will not let herself be drowned in the sea that +threatens her. They come for my life now. + +Elizabeth: I know it. + +Pause. + +Proctor: None - have yet confessed? + +Elizabeth: There be many confessed. + +Proctor: Who are they? + +Elizabeth: There be a hundred or more, they say. Goody Ballard is one; Isaiah +Goodkind is one. There be many. + +Proctor: Rebecca? + +Elizabeth: Not Rebecca. She is one foot in Heaven now; naught may hurt her + + +more. + + + +135 + + +Act Four + +Proctor: And Giles? + +Elizabeth: .You have not heard of it? + +Proctor: I hear nothin’, where I am kept. + +Elizabeth: Giles is dead. + +He looks at her incredulously. + +Proctor: When were he hanged? + +Elizabeth, quietly, factually: Fie were not hanged. Fie would not answer aye or nay to +his indictment; for if he denied the charge they’d hang him surely, and auction out his +property. So he stand mute, and died Christian under the law. And so his sons will have +his farm. It is the law, for he could not be con-demned a wizard without he answer the +indictment, aye or nay. + +Proctor: Then how does he die? + +Elizabeth, gently: They press him, John. + +Proctor: Press? + +Elizabeth: Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. With a +tender smile for the old man: They say he give them but two words. “More +weight,” he says. And died. + +Proctor, numbed - a thread to weave into his agony: “More weight,” + +Elizabeth: Aye. It were a fearsome man, Giles Corey. + +Pause. + +Proctor, with great force of will, but not quite looking at her: I have been +thinking I would confess to them, Elizabeth. She shows nothing. What say you? +If I give them that? + +Elizabeth: I cannot judge you, John. + + +Pause. + + + +136 + + +The Crucible + + +Proctor, simply - a pure question: What would you have me do? + +Elizabeth: As you will, I would have it. Slight pause: I want you living, John. +That’s sure. + +Proctor, pauses, then with a flailing of hope: Giles’ wife? Have she confessed? +Elizabeth: She will not. + +Pause. + +Proctor: It is a pretense, Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth: What is? + +Proctor: I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. .' am not that man. +She is silent. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing’s +spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before. + +Elizabeth: And yet you’ve not confessed till now. That speak goodness in you. + +Proctor: Spite only keeps me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs. Pause, for the +first time he turns directly to her. I would have your forgiveness, Elizabeth, + +Elizabeth: It is not for me to give, John, I am - + +Proctor: I’d have you see some honesty in it. Let them, that never lied die now +to keep their souls. It is pretense for me, a vanity that will not blind God nor +keep my children out of the wind. Pause. What say you? + +Elizabeth, upon a heaving sob that always threatens: John, it come to naught +that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself. Now he turns away a +little, in great agony. It is not my soul, John, it is yours. He stands, as though in +physical pain, slowly rising to his feet with a great immortal longing to find his + + + +Act Four 137 answer. It is difficult to say, .and she is on the verge of tears. Only +be sure of this, for I know it now: Whatever you will do, it is a good man does +it. He turns his doubting, searching gaze upon her. I have read my heart this +three month, John. Pause. I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife + +to prompt lechery. + + +Proctor, in great pain: Enough, enough - + +Elizabeth, now pouring out her heart; Better you should know me! + +Proctor: I will not hear it! I know you! + +Elizabeth: You take my sins upon you, John - +Proctor, in agony: No, I take my own, my own! + +Elizabeth: John, I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love +could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did; I never knew how I should +say my love. It were a cold house I kept! In fright, she swerves, as Hathorne +enters. + +Hathorne: What say you, Proctor? The sun is soon up. + +Proctor, his chest heaving, stares, turns to Elizabeth. She comes to him as +though to plead, her voice quaking. + +Elizabeth: Do what you will. But let none be your judge. There be no higher +judge under Heaven than Proctor is! Forgive me, forgive me, John - I never +knew such goodness in the world! She covers her face, weeping. + +Proctor turns from her to Hathorne; he is op the earth, his voice hollow. + +Proctor: I want my life. + +Hathorne, electrified, surprised: You’ll confess yourself? + +Proctor: I will have my life. + + +Hathorne, with a mystical tone: God be praised! It is a provi- + + + +138 + + +The Crucible + + +dence! He rushes out the door, and his voice is heard calling dawn the corridor: He +will confess! Proctor will confess! + +Proctor, with a cry, as he strides to the door: Why do you cry it? In great pain he turns +back to her. It is evil, is it not? It is evil. + +Elizabeth, in terror, weeping: I cannot judge you, John, I cannot! + +Proctor: Then who will judge me? Suddenly clasping his hands: God in Heaven, what is +John Proctor, what is John Proctor? He moves as an animal, and a fury’ is riding in him, +a tantalized search. I think it is honest, I think so; I am no saint. As though she had +denied this he calls angrily at her: Let Rebecca go like a saint; for me it is fraud! + +Voices are heard in the hall, speaking together in suppressed excitement. + +Elizabeth: I am not your judge, I cannot be. As though giving him release: Do as you +will, do as you will! + +Proctor: Would you give them such a lie? Say it. Would you ever give them this? She +cannot answer. You would not; if tongs of fire were singeing you you would not! It is +evil. Good, then - it is evil, and I do it! + +Hathorne enters with Danforth, and, with them, Cheever, Parris, and Hale. It is a +businesslike, rapid entrance, as though the ice had been broken. + +Danforth, with great relief and gratitude: Praise to God, man, praise to God; you shall +be blessed in Heaven for this. Cheever has hurried to the bench with pen, ink, and +paper. Proctor watches him. Now then, let us have it. Are you ready, Mr. Cheever? + +Proctor, with a cold, cold horror at their efficiency: Why must it be written? + + + +Act Four + + +139 + + +Danforth: Why, for the good instruction of the village, Mister; this we shall post upon +the church door! To Parris, urgently: Where is the marshal? + +Parris, runs to the door and calls down the corridor: Marshal! Hurry! + +Danforth: Now, then, Mister, will you speak slowly, and directly to the point, +for Mr. Cheever’s sake. He is on record now, and is really dictating to Cheever, +who writes. Mr. Proctor, have you seen the Devil in your life? Proctor’s jaws +lock. Come, man, there is light in the sky; the town waits at the scaffold; I +would give out this news. Did you see the Devil? + +Proctor: I did. + +Parris: Praise God! + +Danforth: And when he come to you, what were his demand? Proctor is silent. +Danforth helps. Did he bid you to do his work upon the earth? + +Proctor: He did. + +Danforth: And you bound yourself to his service? Danforth turns, as Rebecca +Nurse enters, with Herrick helping to sup-port her. She is barely able to walk. +Come in, come in, woman! Rebecca, brightening as she sees Proctor: Ah, John! +Y ou are well, then, eh? + +Proctor turns his face to the wall. + +DANFoRTh: Courage, man, courage - let her witness your good example that +she may come to God herself. Now hear it, Goody Nurse! Say on, Mr, Proctor. +Did you bind yourself to the Devil’s service? + +Rebecca, astonished: Why, John! + + +Proctor, through his teeth, his face turned from Rebecca: I did. + + + +140 The Crucible + + +Danforth: Now, woman, you surely see it profit nothin’ to keep this conspiracy any +further. Will you confess yourself with him? + +REBECCA: Oh, John - God send his mercy on you! + +Danforth: I say, will you confess yourself, Goody Nurse? + +Rebecca: Why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot. + +Danforth: Mr. Proctor. When the Devil came to you did you see Rebecca Nurse in his +company? Proctor is silent. Come, man, take courage - did you ever see her with the +Devil? + +Proctor, almost inaudibly: No. + +Daiforth, now sensing trouble, glances at John and goes to the table, and picks up a +sheet - the list of condemned. + +Danforth: Did you ever see her sister, Mary Easty, with the Devil? + +Proctor: No, I did not. + +Danforth, his eyes narrow on Proctor: Did you ever see Martha Corey with the Devil? +Proctor: I did not. + +Danforth, realizing, slowly putting the sheet down: Did you ever see anyone with the +Devil? + +Proctor: I did not. + +Danforth: Proctor, you mistake me. I am not empowered to trade your life for a lie. You +have most certainly seen some person with the Devil. Proctor is silent. Mr. Proctor, a +score of people have already testified they saw this woman with the Devil. + +Proctor: Then it is proved. Why must I say it? + + + +Act Four + + +141 + + +Danforth: Why “must” you say it! Why, you should rejoice to say it if your soul is truly +purged of any love for Hell! + +Proctor: They think to go like saints. I like not to spoil their names. + +Danforth, inquiring, incredulous: Mr. Proctor, do you think they go like saints? + +Proctor, evading: This woman never thought she done the Devil’s work. + +Danforth: Look you, sir. I think you mistake your duty here. It matters nothing +what she thought - she is convicted of the unnatural murder of children, and you +for sending your spirit out upon Mary Warren. Your soul alone is the issue here, +Mister, and you will prove its whiteness or you cannot live in a Christian +country. Will you tell me now what persons conspired with you in the Devil’s +company? Proctor is silent. To your knowledge was Rebecca Nurse ever - + +Proctor". I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. Crying out, with hatred: +I have no tongue for it. + +HALE, quickly to Danforth: Excellency, it is enough he confess himself. Let +him sign it, let him sign it. + +Parris , feverishly: It is a great service, sir. It is a weighty name; it will strike the +village that Proctor confess. I beg you, let him sign it. The sun is up, +Excellency! + +Danforth, considers; then with dissatisfaction, Come, then, sign your testimony. +To Cheever: Give it to him. Cheever goes to Proctor, the confession and a pen +in hand. Proctor does not look at it. Come, man, sign it. + +Proctor, after glancing at the confession: You have all wit-nessed it - it is +enough. + + +Danforth: Y ou will not sign it? + + + +142 + + +The Crucible + + +PROCTOR: You have all witnessed it; what more is needed? + +Danforth: Do you sport with me? You will sign your name or it is no +confession, Mister! His breast heaving with agonized breathing, Proctor now +lays the paper down and signs his name. + +Parris: Praise be to the Lord! + +Proctor has just finished signing when Danforth reaches for the paper. But +Proctor snatches it up, and now a wild terror is rising in him, and a boundless +anger. + +Danforth , perplexed, but politely extending his hand: If you please, sir. + +Proctor: No. + +Danforth, as though Proctor did not understand: Mr. Proctor, I must have - + +Proctor: No, no. I have signed it, You have seen me. It is done! You have no +need for this. + +Parris: Proctor, the village must have proof that - + +Proctor: Damn the village! I confess to God, and God has seen my name on +this! It is enough! + +Danforth: No, sir, it is - + +Proctor: You came to save my soul, did you not? Here! I have confessed +myself; it is enough! + +Danforth: You have not con - + +Proctor: I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? +God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God +knows how black my sins are! It is enough! + +Danforth: Mr. Proctor - + + +Proctor: You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, + + + +Act Four + + +143 + + +I am John Proctor! You will not use me! It is no part of salva-tion that you should use +me! + +Danforth: I do not wish to - + +Proctor: I have three children - how may I teach them to walk like men in the +world, and I sold my friends? + +Danforth: Y ou have not sold your friends - + +Proctor: Beguile me not! 1 blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church +the very day they hang for silence! + +Danforth: Mr. Proctor, I must have good and legal proof that you - + +Proctor: You are the high court, your word is good enough! Tell them I +confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman; say what +you will, but my name cannot - + +Danforth, with suspicion: It is the same, is it not? If I report it or you sign to it? + +Proctor - he knows it is insane: No, it is not the same! What others say and what +I sign to is not the same! + +Danforth: Why? Do you mean to deny this confession when you are free? +Proctor: I mean to deny nothing! + +Danforth: Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why you will not let - + +Proctor, with a cry: of his whole soul: Because it is my name! Because I cannot +have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not +worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? +I have given you my soul; leave me my name! + +Danforth, pointing at the confession in Proctor’s hand: Is that document a lie? +If it is a lie I will not accept it! What say you? + + + +144 + + +The Crucible + + +I will not deal in lies, Mister! Proctor is motionless. You will give me your honest +confession in my hand, or I cannot keep you from the rope. Proctor does not reply. +Which way do you go, Mister? + +His breast heaving, his eyes staring, Proctor tears the paper and crumples it, +and he is weeping in fury, but erect. + +Danforth: Marshal! + +Parris, hysterically, as though the tearing paper were his life: Proctor, Proctor! +Hale: Man, you will hang! You cannot! + +Proctor, his eyes fully of tears: I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. +You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of +goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white +enough to keep it from such dogs. Elizabeth, in a burst of terror, rushes to him +and weeps against his hand. Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show +honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it! He has lifted her, and +kisses her now with great passion. + +Rebecca: Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all! + +Danforth: Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for +corruption! He sweeps out past them. Herrick starts to lead Rebecca, who +almost collapses, but Proctor catches her, and she glances up at him +apologetically. + +Rebecca: I’ve had no breakfast. + +Herrick: Come, man. + + +Herrick escorts them out, Hathorne and Cheever behind them. Elizabeth stands +staring at the empty doorway. + +Parris, in deadly fear, to Elizabeth: Go to him, Goody Proctor! There is yet +time! + + + +Act Four + + +145 + + +From outside a drumroll strikes the air. Parris is startled. Eliza-beth jerks about toward +the window. + +Parris: Go to him! He rushes out the door, as though to hold back his fate. Proctor! +Proctor! + +Again, a short burst of drums. + +Hale: Woman, plead with him! He starts to rush out the door, and then goes back to +her. Woman! It is pride, it is vanity. She avoids his eyes, and moves to the window. He +drops to his knees. Be his helper! - What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? +Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away! + +Elizabeth, supporting herself against collapse, grips the bars, of the window, and with a +cry: He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! + +The final drumroll crashes, then heightens violently. Hale weeps in frantic prayer, and +the new sun is pouring in upon her face, and the drums rattle like bones in the morning +air. + + +THE CURTAIN FALLS + + + +ECHOES DOWN THE CORRIDOR + + +Not long after the fever died, Parris was voted from office, walked out on the +highroad, and was never heard of again. + +The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston. + +Twenty years after the last execution, the government awarded compensation to the +victims still living, and to the families of the dead, However, it is evident that some +people still were unwilling to admit their total guilt, and also that the factionalism was +still alive, for some beneficiaries were actually not victims at all, but informers. + +Elizabeth Proctor married again, four years after Proctor’s death. + +In solemn meeting, the congregation rescinded the excommunica-tions - this in +March 1712. But they did so upon orders of the government. The jury, however, wrote a +statement praying forgive-ness of all who had suffered. + +Certain farms which had belonged to the victims were left to ruin, and for more than +a century no one would buy them or live on them. + +To all intents and purposes, the power of theocracy in Massachu-setts was broken. + + + +THE CRUCIBLE + + +A PLAY BY ARTHUR MILLER STAGED BY JED +HARRIS + +CAST (in order of appearance) + +Reverend Orris Betty Parris Tituba Abigail Williams SUSANNA +WALCOTT Mrs. Ann PUTNnaM Thomas Putnam Mercy Lewis Mary +WARREN John Proctor Rebecca Nurse Giles Corky Reverend John Hh.LE +Elizabeth Proctor Facets Nvasa Ezekiel Cheever Marshal Herrick Judge +Hawthorne Deputy Governor Danforth Sarah Good Hopkins +Coolidge Walter Hampden Adele Fortin Donald Marye + +The settings were designed by Boris Aronson. The costumes were made and designed + +by Edith Lutyens. + +Presented by Kermit Bloomgarden at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York on January 22, 1953. + + +Fred Stewart Janet Alexander + + + +APPENDIX + + +Acr Two, Scene 2 + + +A wood. Night. + +Proctor enters with lantern, glowing behind him, then halts, holding lantern raised. +Abigail appears with a wrap over her nightgown, her hair down. A moment of +questioning silence. + +Proctor, searching: I must speak with you, Abigail. She does not move, staring at him. +Will you sit? + +Abigail: How do you come? + +Proctor: Friendly. + +Abigail, glancing about: I don’t like the woods at night. Pray you, stand closer. He +comes closer to her. I knew it must be you. When I heard the pebbles on the window, +before I opened up my eyes I knew. Sits on log. I thought you would come a good time +sooner. + +Proctor: I had thought to come many times. + +Abigail: Why didn’t you? I am so alone in the world now. + +Proctor, as a fact, not bitterly: Are you! I’ve heard that people ride a hundred mile to +see your face these days. + +Abigail: Aye, my face. Can you see my face? + +Proctor, holds lantern to her face: Then you’re troubled? + + +148 + + + +Appendix + +Abigail: Have you come to mock me? + + +149 + + +Proctor, sets lantern on ground. Sits next to her: No, no, but I hear only that you go to the tavern +every night, and play shovel-board with the Deputy Governor, and they give you cider. + +Abigail: I have once or twice played the shovelboard. But I have no joy in it. + +Proctor: This is a surprise, Abby. I’d thought to find you gayer than this. I’m told a +troop of boys go step for step with you wherever you walk these days. + +Abigail: Aye, they do. But I have only lewd looks from the boys. + +Proctor: And you like that not? + +Abigail: I cannot bear lewd looks no more, John. My spirit’s changed entirely. I ought +be given Godly looks when I suffer for them as I do. + +Proctor: Oh? How do you suffer, Abby? + +Abigail, pulls up dress : Why, look at my leg. I’m holes all over from their damned +needles and pins. Touching her stomach: The jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet, +y’know. + +Proctor, seeing her madness now: Oh, it isn’t. + +Abigail'. I think sometimes she pricks it open again while I sleep. + +Proctor: Ah? + +Abigail: And George Jacobs - sliding up her sleeve - he comes again and again and raps +me with his stick - the same spot every night all this week. Look at the lump I have. +PROCTOr: Abby - George Jacobs is in the jail all this month. + +Abigail: Thank God he is, and bless the day he hangs and lets + + + +150 + + +The Crucible + + +me sleep in peace again! Oh, John, the world’s so full of hypo-crites! Astonished, +outraged: They pray in jail! I’m told they all pray in jail! + +Proctor: They may not pray? + +Abigail: And torture me in my bed while sacred words are cornin’ from their +mouths? Oh, it will need God Himself to cleanse this town properly! + +Proctor: Abby - you mean to cry out still others? + +Abigail: If I live, if I am not murdered, I surely will, until the last hypocrite is +dead. + +Proctor: Then there is no good? + +Abigail: Aye, there is one. You are good. + +Proctor: Am I! How am I good? + +Abigail: Why, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire +you walked me through, and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, +John, we lay in fire. And from that night no woman dare call me wicked any +more but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up +my skirts; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called ,me loose. +And then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December tree I saw +them all - walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites +in their hearts! And God gave me strength to call them liars, and God made men +to listen to me, and by God 1 will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! Oh, +John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again! She kisses his +hand. Y ou will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house, +a - He rises, backs away amazed. Why are you cold? + +Proctor: My wife goes to trial in the morning, Abigail. + +ABIGAIL, distantly: Your wife? + + + +Appendix + + +151 + + +Proctor: Surely you knew of it? + +AaraAii.: I do remember it now. How - how - Is she well? + +Proctor: As well as she may be, thirty-six days in that place. + +AaroAtr.: You said you came friendly. + +Proctor: She will not be condemned, Abby. + +Abigail: You brought me from my bed to speak of her? + +Proctor: I come to tell you, Abby, what I will do tomorrow in the court. I would +not take you by surprise, but give you all good time to think on what to do to +save yourself. + +Abigail: Save myself! + +Proctor: If you do not free my wife tomorrow, I am set and bound to ruin you, +Abby. + +Abigail, her voice small - astonished: How - ruin me? + +Proctor: I have rocky proof in documents that you knew that poppet were none +of my wife’s; and that you yourself bade Mary Warren stab that needle into it. + +Abigail - 0 wildness stirs in her, a child is standing here who is unutterably +frustrated, denied her wish, but she is still grasping for her wits: 1 bade Mary +Warren - ? + +PRoc ToR: You know what you do, you are not so mad! + +Abigail: Oh, hypocrites! Have you won him, too? John, why do you let them +send you? + +Proctor: I warn you, Abby! + +Abigail: They send you! They steal your honesty and - +Proctor: I have found my honesty! + +Abigail: No, this is your wife pleading, your sniveling, envious + + + +152 + + +The Crucible + + +wife! This is Rebecca’s voice, Martha Corey’s voice. You were no hypocrite! + +Proctor: I will prove you for the fraud you are! + +Abigail: And if they ask you why Abigail would ever do so murderous a deed, +what will you tell them? + +Proctor: I will tell them why. + +AatoAn,: What will you tell? You will confess to fornication? In the court? + +Proctor: If you will have it so, so I will tell it! She utters a disbelieving laugh. I +say I will! She laughs louder, now with more assurance he will never do it. He +shakes her roughly. If you can still hear, hear this! Can you hear! She is +trembling, staring up at him as though he were out of his mind. You will tell the +court you are blind to spirits; you cannot see them any more, and you will never +cry witchery again, or I will make you famous for the whore you are! + +Abigail, grabs him: Never in this world! I know you, John - you are this +moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang! + +Proctor, throws her down: You mad, you murderous bitch! + +Abigail: Oh, how hard it is when pretense falls! But it falls, it falls! She wraps +herself up as though to go. Y ou have done your duty by hei. I hope it is your +last hypocrisy. I pray you will come again with sweeter news for me. I know +you will - now that your duty’s done. Good night, John. She is backing away, +raising her hand in farewell. Fear naught. I will save you tomorrow. As she +turns and goes: From yourself I will save you. She is gone. Proctor is left alone, +amazed, in terror . Takes up his lantern and slowly exits. + + +THE CRUCIBLE + +Arthur Miller was bom in New York City in 1915 and studied at the +University of Michigan. His plays include Death of a Salesman +(1949), The Crucible (1953), A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), +After the Fall (1963), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), and +The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972). He has also +written two novels, Focus (1945), and The Misfits, which was filmed +in 1960, and the text for In Russia (1969) and In the Country, books +of photographs by his wife, Inge Morath. The Theater Essays of +Arthur Miller, edited by Robert A. Martin, was published in 1978. His +most recent works are Timebends, a memoir, and Danger: Memory’! +Two Plays. He has twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle +Award, and in 1949 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/WCTest.java b/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/WCTest.java index 895e831..f9dbd54 100644 --- a/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/WCTest.java +++ b/src/test/java/io/zipcoder/WCTest.java @@ -3,9 +3,40 @@ import org.junit.Assert; import org.junit.Test; -import java.util.ArrayList; -import java.util.Arrays; +import java.util.*; public class WCTest { + @Test + public void sortByValue(){ + WC wcTest = new WC(WC.class.getResource("/testFile.txt").getFile()); + + wcTest.wordCollector(); + + String expected = "4 : love\n" + + "3 : i\n" + + "3 : cheese\n" + + "1 : of\n" + + "1 : cheese's\n" + + "1 : type\n" + + "1 : every\n" + + "1 : apples\n"; + String actual = wcTest.printMap(wcTest.sortByCount()); + System.out.println(actual); + + Assert.assertEquals(expected, actual); + } + + @Test + public void countWordTest(){ + WC wcTest = new WC(WC.class.getResource("/testFile.txt").getFile()); + + wcTest.wordCollector(); + + int expected = 15; + int actual = wcTest.countWord(); + + Assert.assertEquals(expected, actual); + } + } \ No newline at end of file