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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. I pray for her. She 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, 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 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 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.
    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 I 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 I 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, resolved: 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 I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.
    ABIGAIL: There is nothin’ more. I swear it, uncle.
    PARRIS, studies her, then nods, half convinced: Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child, I have put clothes upon your back—now give me upright answer. Your name in the town—it is entirely 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 Proctor’s service? I have heard it said, and I tell you