Category Archives: April

04/1692

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Apr 4: ACCUSED: Sarah Cloyce & Elizabeth Proctor

paper scrolls

Today in Salem: The cruel magistrate Hathorne raises his quill and drops it on the table in frustration. He and the other magistrate have just finished writing two arrest warrants: one for the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor, and one for the angry Sarah Cloyce, who’d slammed the church door last week. He’s writing subpoenas for witnesses when it’s suddenly clear that the witchcraft problem is larger than the Village can manage locally.

Five women and one child are already in jail in Salem, at least one woman has been accused in another town, and the afflictions have spread from three young girls to several young women, three married women, and at least one man. And now two more women are to be arrested. It’s too much.

The magistrates set the papers aside and decide to consult with officials in Boston before proceeding. The arrests will have to wait.

Tomorrow in Salem: This WEEK in Salem

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Apr 3: The servant Mary Warren says the afflicted girls are lying

Today in Salem: It’s the Sabbath, and Rev Parris is reading Mary Warren’s note to the confused congregation. Thanking God for deliverance is one thing. But from affliction? Why would God deliver her from being able to see and point out evil?

From the corner of her eye, Mary can see Mercy Lewis and Elizabeth Hubbard touching each other’s hands, hissing as they whisper and look at her sideways. They are fellow servants, also afflicted, and Mary spends the rest of the interminable sermon looking down and clutching her Bible.

When it’s finally over, she tries to hurry away, but the parsonage neighbors stop her.

“How is this possible?” they ask. “Why?”

Mary looks to the side, but there’s no escaping it. “The girls are acting in deception,” she says, but the neighbors just stare at her in silence. Does that mean the girls are deceiving people? Or are they themselves being deceived by the Devil?

The other afflicted girls are standing to the side with their arms crossed, watching Mary in silence. The specters have told them many times to touch the Devil’s book and they’ll be free of torment. And here’s Mary Warren, touching God’s book, claiming she’s free – and that they are lying.

Tomorrow in Salem: ACCUSED: Sarah Cloyce & Elizabeth Proctor

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Apr 2: RELEASED: The maid Mary Warren is free of affliction

Today in Salem: The maid Mary Warren winces as her master, the harsh John Proctor, waves hot fire tongs at her. Mary has been half-dazed all day, tormented by unseen specters.

“Go ahead!” he shouts. “Run into that fire, throw yourself into water, and I won’t stop you! You say you’re afflicted – I wish you were even more so.”

“Why would you say that?” Mary asks, still cringing.

“Because you’re lying. All of you,” he says. “You’re accusing innocent people, and I won’t stand for it.”

John’s quarrelsome wife Elizabeth refills the wool basket and puts Mary hard to work at the spinning wheel. It isn’t long before Mary says she’s feeling much better, that the specters have left her entirely alone. Finally, she can breathe.

After supper Mary rides a mile and a half to the Meeting House and tacks a note on the door, thanking God for deliverance from afflictions. It’s a common practice, and tomorrow Rev Parris will read the note to the congregation. But when Mary returns, it’s Elizabeth who’s angry this time.

“How can you thank God for delivering you from something that never existed?” she asks. “You are telling lie upon lie!”

Tomorrow in Salem: The servant Mary Warren says the afflicted girls are lying

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Apr 1: the Darkness of Light

Today in Salem: Thomas Putnam watches silently as his servant, the war refugee Mercy Lewis, is spitting, over and over, refusing to eat or drink anything from the Devil’s Supper, now in its second day. Thomas’s daughter Ann is quiet for once, and now they are both listening, waiting for Mercy to say the name of her spectral tormenter. Thomas has signed three of the six complaints against the accused witches, and he’s ready to do it again if need be.

Suddenly Mercy relaxes. Later she will tell her master that she’d seen Christ, surrounded by brilliant white light, with multitudes singing and praising his name. She is calmer than she’s been in a long time.

At the parsonage, Rev Parris is not calm, not at all. Once again his payday has come and gone, and once again nothing is offered. It’s now been nine months since he was paid. His supporters, led by Thomas Putnam, have provided food and firewood when they can. But the committee that oversees taxes has consistently refused to collect those taxes from the other people in the Village.

Most Puritans would ask God how they had sinned that God would allow them to be abused this way. Rev Parris is not most Puritans, though. He knows he’s right, and he will root out his enemies one at a time until they are vanquished.

Tomorrow in Salem: RELEASED: the maid Mary Warren is free of affliction