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Houmes · 11-30-2015, 06:07 PM

(11-29-2015 02:42 PM)Sally Wrote:
(11-29-2015 01:34 PM)richard petersen Wrote: In today's 11/29 Chicago Tribune they list several farewell speeches with JWB listed first. "After JWB dined with his fiancee, Lucy Hale, and her mother, he took Lucy's hand and recited a line from Shakespeare , which was not unusual for the actor to do in normal conversation. Then he left to kill the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Booth's parting words at dinner, from "Hamlet" were: Nymph, in thy orisons (prayers), be all my sins remembered"

I have read many books on the subject but this comment is a first for me.

Has anyone read about this dinner with Lucy and her mother?

This story has been related in several books, and is mentioned on nearly every website about Lucy Lambert Hale. I believe the source of it is an article written by Alexander Hunter that first appeared in Chicago’s Daily Inter Ocean newspaper in 1878. The headline was “Booth and Bob Lincoln” and was purported to be the reminiscences of a mysterious (and probably fictitious) Washington socialite named “Mrs. Temple”. This lady was allegedly a resident of the National Hotel during the winter of 1865 and was friendly with the Hale family and with Booth. Since the majority of “Mrs. Temple’s” recollections are provably impossible, it seems unlikely (in my opinion) that the story of Booth’s final words to Lucy Hale is true. I apologize to Bill Richter for my heretical opinion, since he includes the scene in his novel, “The Last Confederate Heroes”. It’s certainly feasible that Booth made such a grandiloquent speech to Lucy (or to any of his other lady friends) at some point, but I don’t believe it was on the night of April 14. Based on the timeline of his movements that day, would he even have had time to dine with Lucy and her mother?

When I read that Mrs. Temple was involved, the alarm bells went off. Little is known about her other than her fifteen minutes of fame obtained from spreading the story of an alleged Booth-Hale-Lincoln romantic triangle. Then again, she also boasted of long, private conversations with President Lincoln.