The Ballad of Booth

[VOICE, spoken]
Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln!

[A gunshot offstage: BANG!]

[BOOTH & VOICES, spoken variously]
Sic semper tyrannis!

[BALLADEER]
Someone tell the story
Someone sing the song
Every now and then the country
Goes a little wrong
Every now and then a madman's
Bound to come along
Doesn't stop the story—
Story's pretty strong
Doesn't change the song...

Johnny Booth was a handsome devil
Got up in his rings and fancy silks
Had him a temper but kept it level
Everybody called him Wilkes

Why did you do it, Johnny?
Nobody agrees
You who had everything
What made you bring
A nation to its knees?

Some say it was your voice had gone
Some say it was booze
Some say you killed a country, John
Because of bad reviews

Johnny lived with a grace and glitter
Kinda like the lives he lived onstage
Died in a barn, in pain and bitter
Twenty-seven years of age

Why did you do it, Johnny?
Throw it all away?
Why did you do it, boy
Not just destroy
The pride and joy
Of Illinois
But all the U.S.A.?

Your brother made you jealous, John
You couldn't fill his shoes
Was that the reason, tell us, John—
Along with bad reviews?

[BOOTH, spoken]
Damn!

[HEROLD, spoken]
They're coming! They'll be here any minute—

[BOOTH, spoken]
I need your help.
I've got to write this. I can't hold the pen.

[HEROLD, spoken]
Johnny, they've found us! We've got to get out of here!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Not 'til I finish this.

[HEROLD, spoken]
Johnny—

[BOOTH, spoken]
No!
Have you seen these papers? Do you know what they're calling me? A common cutthroat! A hired assassin! This one says I'm mad!

[HEROLD, spoken]
We must have been mad to think that we could kill the President and get away with it!

[BOOTH, spoken]
We did get away with it! He was a bloody tyrant and we brought him down! And I will not have history think I did it for a bag of gold or in some kind of rabid fit!

[HEROLD, spoken]
Johnny, we have to go—

[BOOTH, spoken]
No! I have to make my case!
I need you to take it down!

[HEROLD, spoken]
We don't have time!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Take it down.

An indictment. Of the former President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who is herein charged with the following High Crimes and Misdemeanors—

[BALLADEER, sung]
They say your ship was sinkin', John...

[BOOTH, spoken]
One:
That you did ruthlessly provoke a war between the States, which cost some six hundred thousand of my countrymen their lives.
Two—

[BALLADEER]
You'd started missing cues...

[BOOTH, spoken]
Two:
That you did silence your critics in the North, by hurling them into prison without benefit of charge or trial.
Three—

[BALLADEER]
They say it wasn't Lincoln, John

[BOOTH, spoken]
Shut up! Three—

[BALLADEER]
You'd merely had
A slew of bad
Reviews—

[BOOTH, spoken]
I said shut up!

[VOICE, spoken]
Booth! I have fifty soldiers out here, Booth! Give yourselves up or we'll set fire to the barn!

[HEROLD, spoken]
Don't shoot! I'm coming out!

[BOOTH, spoken]
No!

I have given up my life for one act, you understand? Do not let history rob me of its meaning. Pass on the truth! You're the only one who can.
Please...

[BALLADEER]
He said
"Damn you, Lincoln
You had your way—

[BOOTH]
Tell 'em, boy!

[BALLADEER]
—With blood you drew out
Of blue and gray!"

[BOOTH]
Tell it all!
Tell them till they listen!

[BALLADEER]
He said:
"Damn you, Lincoln
And damn the day
You threw the 'U' out
Of U.S.A!"
He said:

[BOOTH]
Hunt me down, smear my name
Say I did it for the fame
What I did was kill the man who killed my country
Now the Southland will mend
Now this bloody war can end
Because someone slew the tyrant
Just as Brutus slew the tyrant—

[BALLADEER]
He said:

[BALLADEER & BOOTH]
Damn you, Lincoln
You righteous whore!

[BOOTH]
Tell 'em!
Tell 'em what he did!

[BALLADEER & BOOTH]
You turned your spite into Civil War!

[BOOTH]
Tell 'em!
Tell 'em the truth!

[BALLADEER]
And more...

[BOOTH]
Tell 'em, boy!
Tell 'em how it happened
How the end doesn't mean that it's over
How surrender is not the end!
Tell 'em:

How the country is not what it was
Where there's blood in the clover
How the nation can never again
Be the hope that it was
How the bruises may never be healed
How the wounds are forever
How we gave up the field
But we still wouldn't yield

How the union can never recover
From that vulgar
High and mighty
Nigga lover
Never—!
Never. Never. Never.
No, the country is not what it was...

Damn my soul if you must
Let my body turn to dust
Let it mingle with the ashes of the country
Let them curse me to hell
Leave it to history to tell:
What I did, I did well
And I did it for my country

Let them cry, "Dirty traitor!"
They will understand it later
The country is not what it was...

[BOOTH draws his gun, puts it to his head. Blackout. A gunshot—BANG!]

[BALLADEER]
Johnny Booth was a headstrong fellow
Even he believed the things he said
Some called him noble, some said yellow
What he was was off his head

How could you do it, Johnny
Calling it a cause?
You left a legacy
Of butchery
And treason we
Took eagerly
And thought you'd get applause

But traitors just get jeers and boos
Not visits to their graves
While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews
Because of you, John, now gets only raves

Damn you, Johnny!
You paved the way
For other madmen
To make us pay
Lots of madmen
Have had their say—
But only for a day

Listen to the stories
Hear it in the songs
Angry men don't write the rules
And guns don't right the wrongs
Hurts a while, but soon the country's
Back where it belongs
And that's the truth

Still and all
Damn you, Booth!