Lincoln and Shakespeare

The 300th birthday of William Shakespeare fell on today's date in 1864, which may have brought it to the attention of Abraham Lincoln. Like Winston Churchill, Lincoln was both a lifelong reader of Shakespeare's works and a regular attender of his theatrical performances.  Having virtually no formal schooling, the president was a self-educated man, with the Bible and Shakespeare as the foundation of his learning.

 The King James Version of the Bible, the one Lincoln knew, was translated when Shakespeare was alive, and English literature flourished as never before or since. Those sources schooled Lincoln in wisdom and style, and without them he would not have become a great American writer.