diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'jones-la/letter.tex')
| -rw-r--r-- | jones-la/letter.tex | 36 |
1 files changed, 36 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/jones-la/letter.tex b/jones-la/letter.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d22a4a --- /dev/null +++ b/jones-la/letter.tex @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +\headline={\hfil 10 May, 1703} +\nopagenumbers +\noindent Dear People of Salem, \bigskip + +You each and all embody the corruption of Godgiven morality, and I condemn you on His behalf. +There is no excuse for your unjust convictions of myself, my wife, and our fellow countrymen. +Your rascality forces me to die for your indulgences---something no man ought face without cause, of which I know you to have had none for you heathens would have taken any confession, regardless of its truth simply to save your reputations. +My name has been preserved but not without the loss of fibrousness throughout the great providence of Massachussets. +Had I falsely confessed as you sinners wish, I would become equally corrupted; I would be a co-conspirator in the murder of my wife and of Rebecca. +And it is by your illicit errors. + +Parris, you could not see past your own greed and conniptions. + +Putnam and Goody Putnam, you have wrought upon us your ineptitudes, and you have permitted no man to escape your lust. +Both of you lust yet for power, for land, for wealth without bound. +It is not a Godfearing man's prerogative to accuse his fellows of wizardry and bewitching. +But it is that of a scoundrel. + +And Abigail, you have committed the gravest sin yet: false witness, adultery, and disrespecting God Himself. +It is not my position that you are deserving of hanging or of burning at the stake. +But Abigail, girl, you have atonement yet far beyond any reasonable amount for any singular person. + +God scowls at your souls, for the barbaric murder of Rebecca---the godliest woman any of you have set your eyes save Mary of Nazareth herself. +For the inhesitant killing of Elizabeth. +For thine false witness and thine worship of those other than Him. +For the ineptitude and for your inconsiderations. +How may you walk free from your sins when you could have prevented every death by your very own hands. + +If Danforth were but an iota less hasty, if Parris had listened to but a fragment of Rebecca's words, if Abigail and her goons were not trusted beyond the word of god Himself, if Putnam had admitted to a singular falsity, if Corey's witness were not neglected beyond sense, perhaps I would not be hanged. + +\bigskip +\noindent Yours truly, +%\noindent Fuck you, +\smallskip\noindent John Proctor + +\bye |