"The Crucible" - page 7
PARRIS. No-no. There be no unnatural causes here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mister 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.
ABIGAIL. Speak nothin' of it in the village, Susanna.
PARRIS. Go directly home and speak nothin' of unnatural causes.
SUSANNA. Aye, sir. I pray for her. (goes out.)
ABIGAIL. 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?
ABIGAIL. Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it. But they're speakin' of witchcraft; 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 she fainted. And there's the whole of it.
PARRIS. Child. Sit you down.
ABIGAIL. 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 of it, for surely my enemies will, and they'll ruin me with it….
ABIGAIL. 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?
ABIGAIL. I know 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.
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 only sport, Uncle!