I recently read a fascinating article by Jeremy Edwards titled Why and How Lincoln Became a Shakespeare Enthusiast. I’m particularly drawn to Edwards comments regarding Lincoln’s opinions of the soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I quote Edwards here.
In his letter Lincoln had confided the unconventional opinion that the soliloquy
in Hamlet “O, my offence is rank” surpasses that commencing “To be or not to
be…” But Lincoln elaborated on the theme again in writing to another actor,
James Murdoch, observing that “To be or not to be …” “was merely a
philosophical reflection on the question of life and death without actual
reference to future judgment” whereas Claudius’s speech showed “force and
grandeur” in its “moral tone” as a “solemn acknowledgement of inevitable
punishment for the infraction of divine law.” The soliloquy which Lincoln
admired is the King’s attempt to absolve himself of his crime through prayer
whilst keeping the objects for which the crime was committed.
Claudius has seized the crown by murdering his brother, the King and Hamlet’s father, and marrying his wife within a month of the deed. Riven with guilt he tries to pray or forgiveness:
“O, my offence is rank, it smells to
Heaven;
It
hath the primal eldest curse upon’t;
A brother’s murder!”
He
continues:
“But O! What form of Prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me
my most foul Murder?
That cannot be since I am still
possessed
Of
those effects for which I did the
murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and
my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain the
offence?”
It doesn’t work, of course, and at the close of the soliloquy he makes the fatal
admission:
“My words fly up. My thoughts remain
below; Words
without thoughts never to
Heaven go.”
Despairingly, he ends with:
“All may be well.”
For me, the figure of Abraham Lincoln has always been more myth than man, more legend than flesh. Yet, Lincoln’s interest in Claudius, a king guilty of murdering his brother, as suggested in Edward’s article, ushers me to the realization that Lincoln is no myth; he’s a man – a man who, cursed by guilt for indirectly or directly causing the death of countless brothers, Union and Confederate brothers, mightly grieved. God forgive him. All may be well.
Edward’s entire article can be found here: http://www.americancivilwar.org.uk/news_why-and-how-lincoln-became-a-shakespeare-enthusiast_176.htm.
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