Shakespeare Goes to War |
An Air Force officer looks over Macbeth during a military base visit from the National Endowment for the Arts “Shakespeare in American Communities” tour. Shakespeare in American Communities.
The bookplate in this Shakespeare edition dates from the Spanish-American War. Shakespeare. Complete Works. Chicago, 1892. Bookplate of War Service Library. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Union Army hospital administrator Martin Kittinger gave Clara Barton this Shakespeare edition in February 1865. Shakespeare. Complete Works. Cincinnati, 1864. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Like other aspects of life, war appears often in Shakespeare’s plays. Soldiers and combat are frequently found in the history plays and the tragedies, as well as some comedies—Much Ado About Nothing, for example, begins with men newly returned from battle. Shakespeare, in turn, has been part of the history of America at war. The Folger collection includes, among other items, playbills of Shakespeare performances during the Civil War, a Shakespeare edition presented to Clara Barton by a Union Army hospital administrator for her nursing services, and a Shakespeare edition distributed to American forces during the Spanish-American War.
Henry V’s stirring St. Crispin’s Day speech, with its lines “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” has been quoted and requoted in American conflicts. Ironically enough, as one website has noted, the phrase “band of brothers” occurs in the lyrics to both The Bonnie Blue Flag, a popular Confederate song, and Hail, Columbia, favored by Union troops. Band of Brothers was the title of a popular 1992 book about a World War II unit that inspired the 2001 cable-television miniseries of the same name. And a 2002 distribution of Armed Services Editions to US troops included the play, Henry V, from which the phrase comes.
Of all the wars in which American forces have fought, perhaps none is more associated with Shakespeare’s lines than the Civil War, which took place at a time when Americans of all social classes often saw the plays on stage and when reading Shakespeare and other authors at home in the family circle (often out loud) was far more common. As noted by UCLA senior lecturer Stephen Dickey, Civil War diaries, speeches, letters, and other records of the war offer a wealth of Shakespeare references, as Americans used their familiarity with the plays to talk about the conflict and the issues that surrounded it.
Select "Listening to Civil War Voices" from the list at left to read more of Dickey's comments.