Lincoln and Shakespeare

[RJNorton]

(10-26-2015 04:05 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  I wonder if Lincoln had ever read Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"? It's is an example par excellence for smart legal argumentation and interpretation.

Eva, Noah Brooks wrote that he and Lincoln saw Edwin Booth in The Merchant of Venice at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln reportedly commented, "It was a good performance, but I had a thousand times rather read it at home, if it were not for Booth's playing. A farce, or a comedy, is best played; a tragedy is best read at home."

However, both Tom Bogar in American Presidents Attend the Theater, and the Fehrenbachers in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln, cite problems with Brooks' reminiscence, and therefore the quote may be apocryphal.