Cry Havoc: How the Bard shaped American political conversation on the eve of the Civil War

(Disunion/NYTimes) A century and a half ago, as Lincoln was preparing to assume the office to which he’d been elected in November 1860, Congress was vigorously debating the issues that were tearing a nation asunder. A sense of impending doom was palpable, with delegates from the Deep South convinced that the incoming administration was eager to deprive them of inalienable rights, and delegates from the North insisting that such fears were groundless.
Many of the elected officials who took part in these deliberations quoted Lord Byron, John Milton and other poets to buttress their arguments. The author who surfaced most frequently, however, was William Shakespeare, a source of acknowledged wisdom whose influence rivaled holy writ. Continued

Photos: 1. The Booth brothers in Julius Caesar. 2. "I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest . . . where be your gibes now?--"Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 1" McClellan, in the character of Hamlet stands near an open grave holding the head of Abraham Lincoln. He soliloquizes, "I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest . . . Where be your gibes now?" The cartoon evidently appeared following publication in the "New York World" of a scandalous but fabricated account of callous levity displayed by Lincoln while touring the battlefield at Antietam. (See also "The Commander-in-Chief conciliating the Soldier's Votes," no. 1864-31.) McClellan's lines here come from "Hamlet," act 4, scene 1, which takes place in a graveyard, where a gravedigger throws up the skull of Yorick, the king's jester. Hamlet picks up the skull and meditates on the nature of life. At left are the words, "Chicago Nominee," referring to McClellan. At right an Irish gravedigger pauses in his work. Horatio (far right) is New York governor and prominent Peace Democrat Horatio Seymour. The White House is visible in the distance.