What did Mr. Lincoln enjoy doing?

[Liz Rosenthal]

I believe that Lincoln's favorite Shakespeare play was MacBeth.

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I don't think Lincoln was an equine enthusiast. He certainly relied on horseback riding to get where he needed to go, although so did everyone else, unless they were able to buy a carriage.

His recreational activities as an older man included handball, "town ball" (precursor to baseball), and a variety of fun games of the time (can't remember what they were called, although one involved pitching pebbles while walking forward).

As a young man he really enjoyed competitive sports - wrestling, weightlifting (i.e., lifting large, heavy objects; I assume barbells were not common on the frontier), running, jumping, etc. As we've observed before, he was a gifted athlete.

Lincoln did love and care about animals, as Eva said, but he seemed to have a special affinity for cats.

In general, he had his favorite Shakespeare plays, poetry and humorous writings and enjoyed either reciting excerpts from them from memory or reading them to friends and colleagues.

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And let's not forget how much he loved to tell stories!