In March, 1864, Edwin Forrest came to Washington to fulfil an
engagement at Ford’s Theatre. It was announced one day that he was
to appear that evening in “Richelieu.” I was with the President,
when Senator Harris of New York came in. After he had finished his
business, which was to secure the remittance of the sentence of one of
his constituents, who had been imprisoned on what seemed insufficient
grounds, I told the President that Forrest was to play _Richelieu_
that evening, and, knowing his tastes, I said it was a play which I
thought he would enjoy, for Forrest’s representation of it was the most
life-like of anything I had ever seen upon the stage. “Who wrote the
play?” said he. “Bulwer,” I replied. “Ah!” he rejoined; “well, I knew
Bulwer wrote novels, but I did not know he was a play-writer also. It
may seem somewhat strange to say,” he continued, “but I never read an
entire novel in my life!” Said Judge Harris, “Is it possible?” “Yes,”
returned the President, “it is a fact. I once commenced ‘Ivanhoe,’ but
never finished it.” This statement, in this age of the world, seems
almost incredible--but I give the circumstance as it occurred.
However it may have been with regard to novels, it is very certain--as
I have already illustrated--that he found time to read Shakspeare; and
that he was also fond of certain kinds of poetry. N. P. Willis once
told me, that he was taken quite by surprise, on a certain occasion
when he was riding with the President and Mrs. Lincoln, by Mr. Lincoln,
of his own accord, referring to, and quoting several lines from his
poem entitled “Parrhasius.”
In the spring of 1862, the President spent several days at Fortress
Monroe, awaiting military operations upon the Peninsula. As a
portion of the Cabinet were with him, that was temporarily the seat
of government, and he bore with him constantly the burden of public
affairs. His favorite diversion was reading Shakspeare. One day (it
chanced to be the day before the capture of Norfolk) as he sat reading
alone, he called to his aide[4] in the adjoining room,--“You have been
writing long enough, Colonel; come in here; I want to read you a
passage in ‘Hamlet.’” He read the discussion on ambition between Hamlet
and his courtiers, and the soliloquy, in which conscience debates of
a future state. This was followed by passages from “Macbeth.” Then
opening to “King John,” he read from the third act the passage in which
Constance bewails her imprisoned, lost boy.