Abraham Lincoln and Shakespeare

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.8 • 878 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

There are lots of stories about Abraham Lincoln and his passion for Shakespeare. Some are true, while others are made up out of whole cloth. We talk to scholar Michael Anderegg about Lincoln’s love of Shakespeare and the anecdotes that recount it. Why do these stories fascinate us? What can they tell us about Lincoln, and about Shakespeare’s place in the American story? Michael Anderegg is Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of North Dakota. He is the author of numerous books including Cinematic Shakespeare, and Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture. His book Lincoln and Shakespeare was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2015. Anderegg is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published March 3, 2020. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Welcome, My Tall Fellow,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical helped from Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the 19th century, Americans loved Shakespeare.
0:04.0	Theaters produced Shakespeare.
0:06.4	Other theaters produced parodies of Shakespeare.
0:09.6	There were other theaters that did Shakespeare plays by people who weren't Shakespeare.
0:14.7	There were Shakespeare plays with different endings.
0:17.9	Politicians quoted Shakespeare all the time. And for one American in the 19th century,
0:25.0	arguably the most prominent American of the 19th century, his love of Shakespeare was so well
0:31.4	known that some people just like to make up stories about it.
0:45.1	From the Folger's Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:47.6	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:53.2	The prominent American I'm talking about is the 16th president of the United States,
0:55.0	Abraham Lincoln. It was well known in his time that Lincoln read Shakespeare and that he went to plays when
1:00.0	he could. But Lincoln is such a mythical figure in American history that there are
1:05.0	plenty of stories about him that are made up out of whole cloth, including stories about
1:10.0	Lincoln and Shakespeare.
1:12.6	In 2015, Michael Anderag wrote a book that tries to separate the myth from the reality.
1:19.6	The book is called Lincoln and Shakespeare, and it takes a deep dive into some of the most told
1:24.6	stories to try and figure out which ones are real and which ones are bunk.
1:29.7	Professor Anderag came into our studio in Washington, D.C. recently, to give us a sample in a podcast we call Welcome My Tall Fellow.
1:39.5	Michael Anderag is interviewed by Barbara Bogave.
1:42.4	Well, there's so many stories about Lincoln and Shakespeare.
1:46.0	Why don't we start with some Lincoln Shakespeare myth busting?
	...

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