He [Cheever] takes out a warrant. I have a warrant for your wife.
Proctor, to Hale: You said she were not charged!
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, I 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 Mary 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 discovered a text in poppets now?
Cheever, carefully holding the poppet: Do you keep any others in this house?
Proctor: 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.
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 him.
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, Abigail 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.
Cheever: ’Tis hard proof! To Hale: I 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 I –
Enter Elizabeth with Mary Warren. Proctor, seeing Mary War–ren, draws her by the arm to Hale.
Proctor: Here now! Mary, how did this poppet come into my house?
Mary Warren, 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 – I 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 – I 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 – I believe I did, sir, I –
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 murder! 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!
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 – I 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 fighting her weeping. To Proctor: When the children wake, speak nothing 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!
Proctor: I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear 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: Damn you, man, you will not chain her! Off with them! I’ll not have it! I will not have her chained!