Oh, I could drown myself for sheer vexation!
[Exit.
GLOYD.
He's going for his cattle.He won't find them.
By this lime they have drifted out to sea.
They will not break his fences any more, Though they may break his heart.And what care I?
[Exit.
SCENE III.-- COREY's kitchen.A table with supper.MARTHAknitting.
MARTHA.
He's come at last.I hear him in the passage.
Something has gone amiss with him today;
I know it by his step, and by the sound The door made as he shut it.He is angry.
Enter COREY with his riding-whip.As he speaks he takes off his hat and gloves and throws them down violently.
COREY.
I say if Satan ever entered man He's in John Proctor!
MARTHA.
Giles, what is the matter?
You frighten me.
COREY.
I say if any man Can have a Devil in him, then that man Is Proctor,--is John Proctor, and no other!
MARTHA.
Why, what has be been doing?
COREY.
Everything!
What do you think I heard there in the village?
MARTHA.
I'm sure I cannot guess.What did you hear?
COREY.
He says I burned his house!
MARTHA.
Does he say that?
COREY.
He says I burned his house.I was in bed And fast asleep that night; and I can prove it.
MARTHA.
If he says that, I think the Father of Lies Is surely in the man.
COREY.
He does say that And that I did it to wreak vengeance on him For taking sides against me in the quarrel I had with that John Gloyd about his wages.
And God knows that I never bore him malice For that, as I have told him twenty timesMARTHA.
It is John Gloyd has stirred him up to this.
I do not like that Gloyd.I think him crafty, Not to be trusted, sullen and untruthful.
Come, have your supper.You are tired and hungry.
COREY.
I'm angry, and not hungry.
MARTHA.
Do eat something.
You'll be the better for it.
COREY (sitting down).
I'm not hungry.
MARTHA.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
COREY.
It has gone down upon it, and will rise To-morrow, and go down again upon it.
They have trumped up against me the old story Of causing Goodell's death by trampling on him.
MARTHA.
Oh, that is false.I know it to be false.
COREY.
He has been dead these fourteen years or more.
Why can't they let him rest? Why must they drag him Out of his grave to give me a bad name?
I did not kill him.In his bed he died, As most men die, because his hour had come.
I have wronged no man.Why should Proctor say Such things bout me? I will not forgive him Till he confesses he has slandered me.
Then, I've more trouble.All my cattle gone.
MARTHA.
They will come back again.
COREY.
Not in this world.
Did I not tell you they were overlooked?
They ran down through the woods, into the meadows, And tried to swim the river, and were drowned.
It is a heavy loss.
MARTHA.
I'm sorry for it.
COREY.
All my dear oxen dead.I loved them, Martha, Next to yourself.I liked to look at them, And watch the breath come out of their wide nostrils, And see their patient eyes.Somehow I thought It gave me strength only to look at them.
And how they strained their necks against the yoke If I but spoke, or touched them with the goad!
They were my friends; and when Gloyd came and told me They were all drowned, I could have drowned myself From sheer vexation; and I said as much To Gloyd and others.
MARTHA.
Do not trust John Gloyd With anything you would not have repeated.
COREY.
As I came through the woods this afternoon, Impatient at my loss, and much perplexed With all that I had heard there in the village, The yellow leaves lit up the trees about me Like an enchanted palace, and I wished I knew enough of magic or of Witchcraft To change them into gold.Then suddenly A tree shook down some crimson leaves upon me, Like drops of blood, and in the path before me Stood Tituba the Indian, the old crone.
MARTHA.
Were you not frightened?
COREY.
No, I do not think I know the meaning of that word.Why frightened?
I am not one of those who think the Lord Is waiting till He catches them some day In the back yard alone! What should I fear?
She started from the bushes by the path, And had a basket full of herbs and roots For some witch-broth or other,--the old hag.
MARTHA.
She has been here to-day.
COREY.
With hand outstretched She said: "Giles Corey, will you sign the Book?""Avaunt!" I cried: "Get thee behind me, Satan!"At which she laughed and left me.But a voice Was whispering in my ear continually:
"Self-murder is no crime.The life of man Is his, to keep it or to throw away!"MARTHA.
'T was a temptation of the Evil One!
Giles, Giles! why will you harbor these dark thoughts?
COREY (rising).
I am too tired to talk.I'll go to bed.
MARTHA.
First tell me something about Bridget Bishop.
How did she look? You saw her? You were there?
COREY.
I'll tell you that to-morrow, not to-night.
I'll go to bed.
MARTHA.
First let us pray together.
COREY.
I cannot pray to-night.
MARTHA.
Say the Lord's Prayer, And that will comfort you.
COREY.
I cannot say, "As we forgive those that have sinned against us,"When I do not forgive them.
MARTHA (kneeling on the hearth).
God forgive you!
COREY.
I will not make believe! I say to-night There's something thwarts me when I wish to pray, And thrusts into my mind, instead of prayers, Hate and revenge, and things that are not prayers.
Something of my old self,--my old, bad life,--And the old Adam in me rises up, And will not let me pray.I am afraid The Devil hinders me.You know I say Just what I think, and nothing more nor less, And, when I pray, my heart is in my prayer.
I cannot say one thing and mean another.
If I can't pray, I will not make believe!
[Exit COREY.MARTHA continues kneeling.
ACT III.
SCENE I.-- GILES COREY'S kitchen.Morning.COREY and MARTHAsitting at the breakfast-table.
COREY (rising).
Well, now I've told you all I saw and heard Of Bridget Bishop; and I must be gone.
MARTHA.
Don't go into the village, Giles, to-day.
Last night you came back tired and out of humor.
COREY.
Say, angry; say, right angry.I was never In a more devilish temper in my life.
All things went wrong with me.
MARTHA.
You were much vexed;
So don't go to the village.
COREY (going).
No, I won't.
I won't go near it.We are going to mow The Ipswich meadows for the aftermath, The crop of sedge and rowens.
MARTHA.