The Crucible Abigail Williams Lines

[tituba exit]

…

Parris: Will you wake, will you open up your eyes! Betty little one….. sob

[i enter #1]

…

Uncle? Susanna Wallcott’s here from Doctor Griggs.

Parris: Oh? The doctor. Let her come, let her come.

(secretly) Come in Susanna.

[sneak up behind susanna]

Susanna: Aye sir, he bid me tell you.

Speak nothin’ of it in the village, Susanna.

Parris: Go directly home and speak nothin of unnatural causes.

Susanna: Are sir, I pray for her [leaves]

Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about. I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor’s packed with people, sir— I’ll sit with her.

Parris: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?

Uncle we did dance, let you tell them I confessed it. But they’re speaking of witchcraft; Betty’s not witched [hold Betty’s hand]

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?

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.

[sit chair #4]

I would never hurt betty, I love her dearly, I….

Parris: Now look you, child. I have no desire to punish you; that will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it, for surely my enemies will, and they’ll ruin me with it…….

But we never conjured spirits.

Parris: Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! 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?

I know it, Uncle.

Parris: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you understand that?

I think so, sir.

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….

It were only sport, Uncle!

Parris: I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came on you, why were she doing that? And I heard a screeching and gibberish comin from her mouth…

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 in the grass.

A dress?

Parris: Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw a… someone naked running through the woods.

No one was naked! You mistake yourself, Uncle!

Parris: I saw it! Now tell me true, Abigail…. Whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

There is nothin more Uncle, I swear it.

Parris: Abigail I have fought three long years…… your name in the town, it is entirely white, is it not?

Why, I am sure it is, sir, there be no blush about my name.

Parris: Abigail, is there any other cause than you have told me, for Goody Proctor discharging you? It has troubled me that you are now seven months out of their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for you service.

[stand, face him] They want slaves, not such as I. Let them send to Barbados for that.

[once Ann reaches bed, cross to Betty’s head]

Putnam: Let your enemies make of it what they will, you cannot blink it more.

Parris: Then you were conjuring spirits last night.

Not I, sir, not I. —Tituba and Ruth.

Parris: Will you leave me now, Thomas, I would pray a while alone.

Uncle you’ve prayed since midnight. Why do you not go down and…?

Parris: If she starts for the window, cry for me at once.

Yes, Uncle.

Parris: There is a terrible power in her arms today. [Goes out.]

[to Mercy] How is Ruth sick?

Mercy: It’s weirdish. I know not. She seems to walk like a dead one since last night.

Betty? Now stop this! Betty! Sit up now!

Mercy: Have you tried beatin her? I gave Ruth a good one and it waked her for a minute. Here, let me have her—

[stop her from hitting Betty]

No, he’ll be comin up. Now look you, if they be questioning us tell them we danced— I told him as much already.

Mercy: And what more?

Oh Jesus!

Mary: … you’ll only be whipped for dancing, and the other things!

Oh, we’ll be whipped!

Mary: I never done none of it, Abby, I only looked!

Mercy: Oh you’re a great one for lookin, aren’t you Mary Warren?

Betty: [whimpers]

Betty? Now Betty dear, wake up now. It’s Abigail. 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: I want my mama!!!

What ails you, Betty? Your mama’s dead and buried…

Betty: I’ll fly to mama, let me fly!

I told him everything, he knows now, he knows everything, we…

Betty: You drank blood, Abby, you drank blood!

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!

[slap] Shut it! Now shut it!

Betty: mama…..mammaaaa…..

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 breath 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!

[Betty cries]

Now you… sit up and stop this!

Mary: What’s got her? Abby she’s going to die! It’s a sin to conjure and we…

I say shut it Mary Warren!

Mercy: I’d best be off. I have my Ruth to watch. Good morning, Mister Proctor.

[cross towards 3]

She’s only gone silly, somehow. She’ll come out of it.

Proctor: So she flies, eh? Where are her wings?

Heh… oh John, sure you’re not believing she flies?

Proctor: The road past my house is a pilgrimage to Salem all morning. The town’s mumbling witchcraft.

Oh, posh! We were ~dancin~ in the woods last night, and my uncle leaped in on us. She took fright, is all.

Proctor: Dancin’ by moonlight! You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you’re twenty.

Give me a word, John, a soft word.

Proctor: No— no, Abby. I’ve not come for that.

You come five mile to see a silly girl fly? I know you better.

Proctor: I come to see what mischief your uncle’s brewing now. Put it out of mind, Abby.

John, I am waitin’ for you every night.

Proctor: Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be coming for you more.

You’re surely sporting with me

Proctor: You know me better.

[cross to window]

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

I saw your face when she put me out and you loved me then and you do now!

Proctor: Abby, that’s a wild thing to say…

A wild thing may say wild things. 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. Do you tell me you’ve never looked up at my window?

Proctor: Perhaps… I have.

[grab his hand]

I know you, John. I know you. I cannot sleep for dream. I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you comin through some door.

Proctor: Child…

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.

Aye, but we did.

Proctor: Aye, but we did now.

[follow him] Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be—

Proctor: You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!

She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold sniveling woman and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a—?

Proctor: Do you look for a whippin’?

[cross to center, loud now]

I look for John Proctor that 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 bit 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!

[block his path too door]

Oh John, pity me, pity me!

[Betty whines. I rush to her]

Betty? Betty? Betty?

Parris: What happened? What are you doing to her! Betty!

She heard you singin and suddenly she’s up and screaming—! [hide behind US chair]

Hale enters

back up to #2

Hale: Abigail, what sort of dancing were you doing with her in the forest?

Why— common dancing is all.

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

That were only soup.

Hale: Soup? What sort of soup were in this kettle, Abigail?

Why it were, beans, and lintels, i think, and—

Hale: Mister Parris, did you not notice, did you, any living thing in the kettle? A mouse, perhaps, a spider, a frog—?

That frog jumped in, we never put it in!

Parris: A frog, Abby!

We never put it in!

Hale: Abigail, it may be you cousin is dying— did you call the devil last night?

I never called him! Tituba called him!

Hale: How did she call him?

I know not— she spoke Barbados.

Hale: Did you see any strangeness when she called him? A sudden cold wind, perhaps? A trembling below the ground?

I didn’t see no Devil!!

Betty— wake up Betty, Betty! [run to bed, sit next to her head]

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

She never drank it!

Hale: Did you drink it?

No, sir!

Hale: Did Tituba ask you to drink it?

She tried but I refused.

Hale: Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer?

I never sold myself! I’m a good girl— I—

[see Tituba]

I did drink of the kettle! She made me do it! She made Betty do it!

Tituba: Abby!

She makes me drink blood!

Hale: [to tituba] You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering souls for the devil?

She send her spirit on me in church! She make me laugh at prayer!

Parris: She have often laughed at prayer!

She comes to me every night to go and drink blood!

Tituba: You beg me to conjure Abby! She beg me make charm—

I’ll tell you something. She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions!

Tituba: Abby!

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….

Hale: … Look at their god-given innocense: their souls are so tender, we must protect them, tituba. the devil is out and preying on them like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb, god will bless you for your help

I want to open myself! 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 osburn with the devil!

I saw bridget bishop with the devil!

Hale: Glory to god, it is broken, they are free!

Betty: i saw martha bellows with the devil!

I saw goody sibber with the devil!

putnam: the marshal, i’ll call the marshal!

hale: let the marshal bring irons

betty [speak at the same time as her]

I saw goody hawkins with the devil!

I saw mister barton with the devil!

Betty: i saw goody cobb with the devil!

I saw goody franklin with the devil!

---

---

Proctor: I must speak with you, Abigail, will you sit?

How do you come?

Proctor: Friendly.

I don’t like the woods at night. Pray you stand closer.

I knew it must be you. when i heard the pebbles on the window, before i opened my eyes i knew. I thought you would come a good time sooner.

Proctor: I had thought to come many times

Why didn’t you? I am so alone in the world now.P

Proctor: Are you? Ive heard that people ride a hundred mile to see your face these days

aye, my face. can you see my face?

Proctor: then you’re troubled?

have you come to mock me?

Proctor: nono, but i only hear that you go to the tavern every night, and play shovelboard with the deputy governor and they give you cider.

i have once or twice played the shovelboard. but i have no joy in it.

Proctor: this is a surprise abby. i thought id find you gayer than this. im told a group of boys go step for step with you wherever you walk these days

ay they do, but i have only lewd looks from the boys.

Proctor: and you like that not?

I cannot bear lewd looks no more, john. my spirits changed entirely. i ought to be given godly looks when i suffer for them as i do.

Proctor: oh? how do you suffer abby?

why, look at my leg. im holes all over from their damned needles and pins. the jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet you know.

Proctor: oh it isn’t

I think sometimes she pricks it open again while i sleep

Proctor: ah

and george jacobs, he comes again and again and raps me with his stick— the same spot every night all week. look at the lump i have.

Proctor: abby george jacobs is in the jail all this month.

thank god he is! and bless the day he hands and lets me sleep in peace again! oh john, the world’s so full of hypocrites! they pray in jail, im told they all pray in jail!

Proctor: they may not pray?

and torture me in my bed while sacred words are comin from their mouths? oh it will need god himself to cleanse this town properly!

Proctor: abby, you mean to cry out still others?

if i live, if i am not murdered, i surely will, until the last hypocrite is dead.

Proctor: then there is no one good?

Aye, there is one…. you are good.

Proctor: am i? how am i good?

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 all my ignorance away.

as bare as some december tree i saw them all: walking like saints to church but hypocrites in their hearts! and god gave me strength to call them liars, and god made men to listen to me, and by god i 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! you will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house, a— why are you cold?

proctor: my wife goes to trial in the morning, abigail.

…your wife?

proctor: surely you knew of it

i do remember of it now. how- how- is she well?

Proctor: as well as she may be, thirty six days in that place.

you said you came friendly

proctor: she will not be condemned, abby.

you brought me from my bed to speak of her?

proctor: i come to tell you 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

save myself!

proctor: if you do not free my wife tomorrow, i am bound and set to ruin you, abby

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

I bade mary warren?!

proctor: you know what you do, you are not so mad

oh hypocrites! have you won him too?! 

john, why do you let them send you?

proctor: i warn you abby-

they send you! they steal your honesty and—

proctor: i have found my honesty—

no. this is your wife pleading, your sniveling envious wife. this is rebeccas voice, martha coreys voice. you were no hypocrite!

Proctor: i will prove you for the fraud you are!

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.

what will you tell? you will confess to fornication? in the court?