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{"id":18636,"date":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=359"},"modified":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","slug":"battling-shakespeare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/battling-shakespeare\/","title":{"rendered":"Battling Shakespeare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I<\/span>n an essay on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Shakespeare\u201d at National Interest<\/em><\/a>, Algis Valiunas traces the shifting political of Shakespeare in the US. <\/p>\n

Whitman initially thought Shakespeare was \u201cpoisonous to the idea of the pride and dignity of the common people, the life-blood of Democracy.\u201d Further study of the history plays led him to the conclusion that Shakespeare was a good American democrat after all. By exposing the evils of medieval kingship, Shakespeare wrote \u201cthe first full expos\u00e9\u2026of the political theory and results, or the reason-why and necessity for them which America has come on earth to abnegate and replace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln rarely without his Shakespeare. He \u201ctoted Shakespeare along on his rounds of the judicial circuit; his son remembered him with a copy of Shakespeare in hand as he went about his business in the White House; his secretary John Hay listened to the president\u2019s midnight declamations of favorite Shakespearean passages; and Lincoln dipped into Hamlet to fortify the eloquence of his first inaugural address. But his favorite play was\u2014a portentous choice\u2014Macbeth<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Wilkes Booth\u2019s imagination was sparked by another play. He was \u201cmost celebrated as Antony in a performance of Julius Caesar with his two more distinguished brothers that was hailed as \u2018the greatest theatrical event in New York history.\u2019\u201d He was still living in Julius Caesar when he killed Lincoln: \u201cBooth had written a letter on the day of the assassination, addressed \u2018To My Countrymen\u2019 and intended for newspaper publication, in which his peroration roars with Shakespearean thunder: \u2018When Caesar had conquered the enemies of Rome and the power that was his menaced the liberties of the people, Brutus arose and slew him. The stroke of his dagger was guided by his love for Rome. It was the spirit and ambition of Caesar that Brutus struck at. \u2018O then that we could come by Caesar\u2019s spirit,\/ And not dismember Caesar! But alas!\/ Caesar must bleed for it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"