ACT ONE
(AN OVERTURE)
A small upper bedroom in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem,
Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1692.
There is a narrow window at the left. Through its leaded panes the morning
sunlight streams. A candle still burns near the bed, which is at the right. A
chest, a chair, and a small table are the other furnishings. At the back a door
opens on the landing of the stairway to the ground floor. The room gives op an
air of clean spareness. The roof rafters are exposed, and the wood colors are
raw and unmellowed.
As the curtain rises, Reverend Parris is discovered kneeling be-side the bed,
evidently in prayer. His daughter, Betty Parris, aged ten, is lying on the bed,
inert.
At the time of these events Parris was in his middle forties. In history he cut a
villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him. He believed he
was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people
and God to his side. In meeting, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door
without first asking his permission. He was a widower with no interest in
children, or talent with them. He regarded them as