April 9, 1865 – Lincoln Quotes from Macbeth to Friends

In Lewis E. Lehrman’s history, Lincoln & Churchill” Statesmen at War, the author observes that Lincoln “was a devoted, self-taught master of Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories.” Lincoln would draw upon those readings for his writing and speeches. As Paul F. Boller Jr. writes for the White House Historical Association site, Lincoln’s love of Shakespeare began early:

…when Lincoln was a clerk in a general store in New Salem, he sneaked in some Shakespeare when he was not waiting on customers. And when he became a lawyer and rode the circuit, he usually carried a much-used copy of Macbeth with him. He even mentioned Shakespeare in some of his court cases.”

This love of Shakespeare and references to his work stayed with Lincoln throughout his life. His first speech in Congress in December 1847 made reference to Macbeth. He read from Macbeth to console himself after the Civil War’s bloody battle of the Wilderness between May 5 and May 7, 1864.

He returned again to Macbeth on one of the last nights of his life. The White House Historical Association site tells the story that on this day in history, April 9, 1865:

. . . .he was returning to Washington on the River Queen from City Point, Virginia, where he had visited the front, and he talked Shakespeare to his companions, read aloud to them, and recited his favorite passages from memory. He spent most of his time on Macbeth. ‘The lines after the murder of Duncan,’ recalled the Marquis de Chambrun, a foreign visitor, ‘when the new king falls a prey to moral torment, were dramatically dwelt on. Now and then he paused to expatiate on how exact a picture Shakespeare here gives of a murderer’s mind when, dark deed achieved, its perpetrator already envies his victim’s calm sleep.’ Lincoln’s companions were struck by the slow, quiet way he read the lines:

“Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well,
Treason has done his worst; not steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch
him farther.”

When Lincoln finished, he paused for a moment, and then read the lines slowly over again. ‘I then wondered,” reflected one of his friends, “whether he felt a presentiment of his approaching fate.'”

Taken by Alexander Gardner in February 1865, two months before Lincoln’s assassination.