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MARY TODD LINCOLN
Holds her head as she paces around the room.
Quiet, Savage!
I intend to shoot Robert Todd Lincoln with Tad's revolver.
Mr. Lincoln and I gave Tad the gun. Mine now.
Call this escapism if you like. Or you can think of it as revenge.
SAVAGE INDIAN
Reads from the Bible.
Thou shalt not kill.
MARY TODD LINCOLN
Grabbing her ears screaming.
Stop speaking! You cannot read the Bible or quote Shakespeare.
SAVAGE INDIAN
If the doctor is adroit, convenable,
And says “I am all in your head,”
Then, dear lady, regrettably,
I know what you know.
Wow. I've never seen historical fiction done like this before - Savage Conversations is both a play, and poetry, and littered with historical documents about Mary Todd Lincoln's life inside an asylum and out. It is violent and at times somewhat erotic (for MTL, not for the reader). It's also only three characters, used to brilliant effect: Mary, the Savage Indian that is a figment of her imagination (but part of the testimony that got her committed to the asylum in the first place), and The Rope that was used to hang 38 Dakota Indians in 1862.
MARY TODD LINCOLN
Do not pray for me, Savage!
I have suffered for my convictions,
Suffered the poor,
Suffered the slaves,
Suffered my children,
Suffered my husband's love of another woman,
And now I suffer a vicious red man.
Don't you know?
I was the STAUNCH ABOLITIONIST in the Todd clan,
More committed to freedom than the God of Abraham,
More committed to freeing the slaves than the radical wing of the
Republican delegation.
Fools. They created only monsters.
And to think I was Mr. Lincoln's literary editor.
Now here I am imprisoned in an asylum,
My eyes cracking like egg yolks,
Nightly my face tortured,
My blood glows red hot through crisscrossed wires
While Negros enjoy their freedom.
I'm pretty sure I added this to my TBR because of New Poets of Native Nations, which I read in 2019, and I'm really glad I finally prioritized it. Absolutely worth a read - it was pretty quick, and available at one of my local libraries.
