Act 1 Scene 1

Question 1

MARY. Oh! I’m just going home, Mister Proctor.

Answer 1

PROCTOR. Be you foolish, Mary Warren? Be you deaf? I forbid you leave the house, did I not? Why shall I pay you?-I am looking for you more often than my cows!

Question 2

MARY. I only come to see the great doings in the world.

Answer 2

PROCTOR. I’ll show you a great doin’ on your arse one of these days. Now get you home; (Mary crosses up and out.) my wife is waitin’ with your work!

Question 3

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

Answer 3

PROCTOR. So she flies, eh? Where are her wings?

Question 4

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

Answer 4

PROCTOR. So she flies, eh? Where are her wings?

Question 5

ABIGAIL. (With a nervous laugh.) Oh, John, sure you’re not believin’ she flies?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

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

Answer 6

PROCTOR. (His smile widens. Crossing to door.) Dancin’ by moon- light! (Abigail springs into his path.) You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you’re twenty.

Question 7

ABIGAIL. (Barring his way at door.) Give me a word, John. A soft word.

Answer 7

PROCTOR. No-no, Abby, I’ve not come for that.

Question 8

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

Answer 8

PROCTOR. I come to see what mischief your uncle’s brewin’ now. Put it out of mind, Abby.

Question 9

ABIGAIL. John-I am waitin’ for you every night.

Answer 9

PROCTOR. Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be comin’ for you more.

Question 10

ABIGAIL. You’re surely sportin’ with me.

Answer 10

PROCTOR. You know me better.

Question 11

ABIGAIL. 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!

Answer 11

PROCTOR. Abby, that’s a wild thing to say…

Question 12

ABIGAIL. A wild thing may say wild things. I have seen you since she put me out, I have seen you nights.

Answer 12

PROCTOR. I have hardly stepped off my farm this sevenmonth.

Question 13

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?

Answer 13

PROCTOR. Perhaps I… have.

Question 14

ABIGAIL. 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 comin’ through some door.

Answer 14

PROCTOR. (Taking her hands.) Child…

Question 15

ABIGAIL. 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 comin’ through some door.

Answer 15

PROCTOR. (Taking her hands.) Child…

Question 16

ABIGAIL. (With a flash of anger. Throwing his hands off.) How do you call me child!

Answer 16

PROCTOR. (As three or four persons offstage begin a quiet chant-a psalm or hymn.) 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- (Takes her arms.) We never touched, Abby.

Question 17

ABIGAIL. (Putting hands on his shoulders.) Aye, but we did.

Answer 17

PROCTOR. (Pushing her away.) Aye, but we did not.

Question 18

ABIGAIL. (With a bitter anger.) Oh, I marvel how such a (Beating her fists against his chest.) strong man may let such a sickly wife be…

Answer 18

PROCTOR. (Coldly. Grabbing her wrists.) You’ll speak nothin’ of Elizabeth!

Question 19

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

Answer 19

PROCTOR. (Shakes her.) Do you look for whippin!!

Question 20

ABIGAIL. (Outraged. In tears.) 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 bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! (Shakes free.) You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is you love me yet!

Answer 20

(He turns abruptly to go out.)

Question 21

She rushes to door, blocks it.) John, pity me, pity me! (The word “Jehovah” is heard in the psalm the song outside- Betty claps her ears suddenly, and whines loudly.) Betty? (She hurries to Betty, who is sitting up and screaming.

Answer 21

(Proctor crosses D. to U. L. of Abigail, who is trying to pull Betty’s hands down, calling “Betty!” Proctor is growing unnerved, calling, “What’s she doing? Girl, what ails you? Stop that wailin, Girl!” Singing has stopped in the midst of this, and Parris rushes in.)

Question 22

REBECCA. Pray, calm yourselves. 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.

Answer 22

PROCTOR. Aye, that’s the truth of it, Rebecca.

Question 23

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.

Answer 23

PROCTOR. Then let you come out and call them wrong. Are you our minister, or Mister Hale? Did you consult the wardens of the church before you called this minister to look for devils?

Question 24

PARRIS. He is not coming to look for devils!

Answer 24

PROCTOR. Then what’s he coming for?

Question 25

PUTNAM. There be children dyin’ in the village, Mister…!

Answer 25

PROCTOR. I see none dyin’…

Question 26

PUTNAM. There be children dyin’ in the village, Mister…!

Answer 26

PROCTOR. I see none dyin’…

Answer 27

PROCTOR. You cannot command Mister Parris. We vote by name in this society, not by acreage.

Question 28

PARRIS. Mister 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.

Answer 28

PROCTOR. Mister Parris, you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this house-

Question 29

PARRIS. There is either obedience or the church will burn like hell is burning!

Answer 29

PROCTOR. Can you speak one minute without we land in hell again? I am sick of hell!

Question 30

PARRIS. It is not for you to say what is good for you to hear!

Answer 30

PROCTOR. I may speak my heart, I think!

Question 31

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

Answer 31

PROCTOR. Against you?

Question 32

PUTNAM. Against him and all authority.

Answer 32

PROCTOR. Why, then I must find it and join it.

Question 33

REBECCA. He does not mean that…

Answer 33

PROCTOR. I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; I like not the smell of this “authority,” I have a crop to sow, and lumber to drag home. What say you, Giles? Let’s find that party. He says there is a party.

Question 34

PUTNAM. A moment, Mister Proctor. What lumber is that you’re draggin’ home, if I may ask you?

Answer 34

PROCTOR. My lumber. From out my forest by the riverside.

Question 35

PUTNAM. Why, we are surely gone wild this year: what anarchy i is this? that tract is in my bounds, it’s in my bounds, Mister Proctor.

Answer 35

PROCTOR. In your bounds! I bought that tract from Goody Nurse’s husband five months ago.

Question 36

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…..

Answer 36

PROCTOR. Your grandfather had a habit of willing land that never belonged to him, if I may say it plain.

Question 37

COREY. Aye, and we’ll win, too, Putnam-this fool and I. Come on!

Answer 37

(Proctor almost leaves, moving closer to the exit) (then Enters Reverend John Hale, thirty-five, a ruddy, bright young man. He is loaded down with half a dozen heavy books.)

Question 38

HALE. Cannot eat! (To Proctor and Corey.) Do you men also have afflicted children?

PARRIS. No, no, these are farmers. John Proctor…

COREY. He don’t believe in witches.

Answer 38

PROCTOR. I never spoke on witches one way or the other. Will you come, Giles?

Question 39

COREY. No-no, John, I think not. I have some few queer ques- tions of my own to ask this fellow.

Answer 39

PROCTOR. I’ve heard you be a sensible man, Mister Hale-I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem.

(Proctor goes out.)