Lincoln and Shakespeare

[RJNorton]

Gene, I second Eva!

[RJNorton]

This portion of a lecture by Dickey during the session explores President Lincoln's knowledge of Shakespeare and his special affinity for Macbeth."

In a letter to actor James H. Hackett written on August 17, 1863, Lincoln wrote, "For one of my age I have seen very little of the drama...Some of Shakespeare's plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader...I think nothing equals "Macbeth." It is wonderful. Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the soliloquy in "Hamlet" surpasses that commencing "To be or not to be."

[Eva Elisabeth]

This one has just started here - but reviews are sceptical as for the director's interpretation:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHhKuCQmoY
(Our local newspaper entitled it "Scottish slaughtery plate".) Has anyone seen the movie?

[maharba]

Probably we all had to take a year or two of latin, greek, and some french. Abraham Lincoln was fluent in Shakespeare but oddly absent in latin. I say because it would certainly be expected as an attorney. I think if he had read the gallic wars in latin or english, it would have certainly held his interest. And that he would have borrowed a few ringing phrases from it.

[RJNorton]

There is the following little story of Lincoln and Latin - I do not know the original source or its truthfulness:

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"When arguing a case in court, Abraham Lincoln never used a word which the dullest juryman could not understand. Rarely, if ever, did a Latin term creep into his arguments. A lawyer, quoting a legal maxim one day in court, turned to Lincoln, and said: "That is so, is it not, Mr. Lincoln?"

"If that's Latin," Lincoln replied, "you had better call another witness."

[maharba]

That does follow his pattern of using every device to speak directly to the common man of the jury in language they best could understand. And Latin, used there, may even be off putting and turn a juror away from a verdict. Probably it shows too that Lincoln had little familiarity with even catholic church latin, or had to pitch his appeal to a catholic jury. Maybe that would have changed with the later influx of Germans brought in for the Civil War, as they later sat on juries.