Shakespeare and Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

(06-11-2018 01:00 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  When I think of Lincoln and Shakespeare, one thought that always comes to mind is a letter the President wrote to Shakespearean actor James Hackett:

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To James H. Hackett


Executive Mansion,
My dear Sir: Washington, August 17, 1863.

Months ago I should have acknowledged the receipt of your book, and accompanying kind note; and I now have to beg your pardon for not having done so.

For one of my age, I have seen very little of the drama. The first presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, last winter or spring. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is to say, as I truly can, I am very anxious to see it again. Some of Shakespeare's plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard Third, Henry Eighth, Hamlet, and especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful. Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the soliloquy in Hamlet commencing ``O, my offence is rank'' surpasses that commencing ``To be, or not to be.'' But pardon this small attempt at criticism. I should like to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard the Third. Will you not soon visit Washington again? If you do, please call and let me make your personal acquaintance. Yours truly A. LINCOLN.

Roger,

You may recall Lincoln's implicit criticism of Shakespearean actor James H. Hackett to fellow Shakespearean actor John McDonough in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time at pages 265-266:

"I am very glad to meet you, Mr. McDonough, and am grateful to Kelley for bringing you in so early, for I want you to tell me something about Shakespeare's plays as they are constructed for the stage. You can imagine that I do not get much time to study such matters, but I recently had a couple of talks with Hackett -- Baron Hackett, as they call him -- who is famous as Jack Falstaff, but from whom I elicited few satisfactory replies, though I probed him with a good many questions. . . . Hackett's lack of information impressed me with a doubt as to whether he had ever studied Shakespeare's text, or had not been content with the acting editions of his plays."

And, Professor Burlingame writes on this topic as follows (Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. Two, page 744):

The indiscreet actor released the Lincoln letter of August 17, 1863 to the New York Herald. The newspaper then ridiculed Lincoln's taste in soliloquies.

Hackett apologized to Lincoln, who then wrote in reply to Hackett on November 2, 1863 (Complete Works of Lincoln, 6:558-559):

"Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject. . . . My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in print; yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper comments upon it. Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred to me through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it."

The friendly correspondence between them ended when Hackett asked to be named consul in London, a post that could not be given to him.