BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Folger Shakespeare Library -- Exhibit: Churchill's Shakespeare

DC -- Folger Shakespeare Library -- Exhibit: Churchill's Shakespeare:

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Description of Pictures: Churchill's Shakespeare
Oct 06, 2018 – Jan 06, 2019
Mon–Sat: 10am–5pm | Sun: noon–5pm
A towering leader during World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was also a lifelong admirer of Shakespeare. Compelling materials from Cambridge’s Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill’s home Chartwell, and the Folger collection show the man himself and trace Shakespeare’s influence on his speeches and ideas.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FOLCSH_181024_049.JPG: Autograph manuscript page from Chapter XVII "Military Observations" Churchill writes with admiration about the courage of soldiers from all stations of life. At the bottom of the page, he adds: "Most men aspire to be good actors in the play. There are a few who are so perfect that they do not seem to be actors at all. This is the ideal after which the rest are striving."
2. FOLCSH_181024_053.JPG: "The Story of the malakand field force" London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898 Churchill dedicates the book to Major-General Sir Bindon Blood (1842-1940), his commander in the field.
3. FOLCSH_181024_056.JPG: Autograph manuscript page from Chapter XVII "Military Observations" Churchill suggested two quotations from Virgil and Shakespeare to head his chapter on "Military Observations," in which he compares soldiers to good actors. From Virgil he gives the first line of the Aeneid: "I sing of arms and the man." From Henry IV, Part I, he quotes "...and thou hast talk'd/ Of sallies and retires of trenches, tents/ Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets/ Of basilisks of cannon, culverin" (Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 52-55).
4. FOLCSH_181024_063.JPG: War as Melodrama Most men aspire to be good actors in the play. There are a few who are so perfect they do not seem to be actors at all. -- Winston Churchill on the best kind of soldiers in The Story of the Malakand Field Force, 1898 Chapter One of Churchill's first book was called "The Theatre of War." This account of his first warfare experiences reflected his vision of war as a theatrical performance and echoed Shakespeare's view of the world as a stage. In his first book, published when he was twenty-three, Churchill re-imagines his early experiences with battle as theatrical performance. The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) is based on his letters to the Daily Telegraph as war correspondent from the northwest frontier of the British empire in India. He saw action there after graduating from Sandhurst, the British military academy. Churchill fought as an embedded correspondent with the British and Sikhs against groups of Afghan tribesmen over contested territories in valleys along the Peshawar border. Shakespeare provided Churchill with a framework to describe his first encounter with war. Churchill heads the Preface of The Malakand Field Force with a quotation from Shakespeare's King John: "According to the fair play of the world,/ Let me have an audience" (ACT 5, SCENE 2, LINES 119-20). Chapter One begins with a description of the "scenery" of northwest India. Later in the book, he goes on to describe the soldiers as actors in "the great drama of frontier war … played before a vast … audience."
5. FOLCSH_181024_070.JPG: A Schoolboy's Shakespeare Last night we had a certain Mr. Beaumont to give a lecture on Shakespeare's play of "Julius Caesar". He was an old man, but read magnificently. -- Winston Churchill to his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill October 1886, from school in Brighton
6. FOLCSH_181024_073.JPG: Shakespeare was part of Churchill's life from the time he was a boy. At home he played with toy theaters and toy soldiers, activities that would shape his later thinking about the theater of war. At the age of thirteen Churchill entered Harrow, one of the top boarding schools for upper-class boys in England. There he competed twice for the Shakespeare Prize, both times coming close but not winning. After the first time in 1888, he wrote to his father, Lord Randolph: "We had to learn & work up the notes in Merchant of Venice, Henry VIII, Midsummer Night's Dream. I came out 4th for the Lower School." The emphasis on speaking the lines as a way of learning Shakespeare was typical of the period, but also obviously affected Churchill's sense of the rhythm and persuasive power of speech which carried into his later life.
7. FOLCSH_181024_076.JPG: Letter from Winston Churchill to Lady Randolph Churchill October 23, 1888 Churchill writes to "My dear Mummy," saying "I have been working up for the ‘Shakespere prizes' very hard and I am so sorry I did not write." Unfortunately, he was not successful on this try.
8. FOLCSH_181024_083.JPG: Shakespeare's all the Rage Although the Ball is a phantasy of the past … its splendid memories are fitly enshrined in the Monument to England's greatest poet – the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. -- Jennie Cornwallis-West (Lady Randolph Churchill) Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, loved the theater, enjoyed writing plays, and was one of the stars of London society. An avid theater-goer, she organized grandiose fundraising events for a National Theatre and National School of Acting. After her husband, Lord Randolph, died in 1895, Jennie Churchill married George Cornwallis-West. She organized a grand Shakespeare Ball in 1911 to raise funds for a new National Theatre. A thousand or so guests, richly dressed as Shakespearean characters, joined King George V and Queen Mary at the Royal Albert Hall. The souvenir book for the ball includes pieces written by George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton, well-known playwrights and essayists. In 1912, Jennie Churchill followed this event with a second extravaganza -- a festival which turned Earl's Court into a sort of Shakespearean Disneyland with recreations of buildings from Elizabethan times. She applied to Shaw as a friend for help in understanding insurance requirements for the event. Feeling inadequate on financial issues, Shaw wrote a long footnote about his work on Irish home rule, which Winston was backing in Parliament, and invited her and Winston to lunch. The Shakespeare festival was not as successful as the ball, but Jennie Churchill, a keen theater-goer, remained convinced that the country needed a National Theatre and National School of Acting.
9. FOLCSH_181024_086.JPG: Shakespeare Memorial Souvenir Of The Shakespeare Ball Edited By Mrs. George Cornwallis-West. London; New York: F. Warne & co., 1911 Here, Churchill's mother is shown as Countess Olivia from Twelfth Night.
10. FOLCSH_181024_092.JPG: Letter from George Bernard Shaw to Mrs. Cornwallis West January 20, 1912 In this 4-page letter, Shaw responds to a request from Lady Randolph Churchill (now Mrs. Cornwallis-West) for advice regarding insurance from Lloyd's of London for her planned festival on Shakespeare's England. He finally says, "Financial counsel from me is a ghastly absurdity." In a footnote, he invites her to lunch and tells her to bring "the Marvellous Boy" (Winston).
11. FOLCSH_181024_101.JPG: Shakespeare and the Political Cartoon
12. FOLCSH_181024_105.JPG: Shakespeare and the Political Cartoon From the early days of his career through World War II, Churchill was represented as characters from Shakespeare in political cartoons. Punch, a British weekly magazine of satire and humor, especially favored Shakespearean themes in its commentary on the government. During World War II, it depicted Hitler as Macbeth and King Lear. From the other side, the German weekly, Simplicissimus depicted Churchill as a drunken Falstaff. Both countries admired Shakespeare and used him for their own propaganda purposes.
13. FOLCSH_181024_107.JPG: "Macduff at the Gate" by Bernard Partridge, Punch, April 28, 1943. Hitler as Macbeth and Mussolini as Lady Macbeth show fear as they "hear a knocking at the south entry," which proves not to be Macduff, but the Allies planning to invade southern Italy.
14. FOLCSH_181024_111.JPG: Churchill as Falstaff Simplicissimus, November 26, 1939 In September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany and soon after Churchill was made First Lord of the Admiralty. Here the German press satirizes Churchill as a drunken Falstaff. The caption reads loosely: "For me, causes for war are as cheap as blackberries!"
15. FOLCSH_181024_116.JPG: "Scene from King Henry the Fourth" by Bernard Partridge, Punch, May 22, 1901 Young Churchill as an upstart Prince Hal faces the Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, as Falstaff. Churchill was Conservative MP but spoke out against his party's proposal to hike military spending for the army.
16. FOLCSH_181024_122.JPG: "All in Due Course" by Bernard Partridge, Punch, January 11, 1911. Churchill as Catesby faces off against Liberal Prime Minister Lord Asquith as Richard III. The Liberal party introduced an act "to curb the powers of the House of Lords." Churchill says the lords will reform themselves.
17. FOLCSH_181024_126.JPG: "The August Moon" by Bernard Partridge, Punch, August 21, 1940. Hitler, dressed as King Lear with a crown of weeds, shakes his fist at the moon, labelled "conquest of Britain." The German bombing of London began in June 1940, with daylight raids in August, but the English fought back hard and Germany did not attempt a ground invasion.
18. FOLCSH_181024_132.JPG: "The Counter-Blow" by Bernard Partridge, Punch, April 24, 1940. As Germany moved on Norway in April 1940, the British and French responded militarily. Hitler as Macbeth recoils from a trident with the flags of France and the British navy. The caption reads: "Is this a trident which I see before me, the points toward my head?"
19. FOLCSH_181024_139.JPG: Actors in a Grand Global drama - world war ii All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players… And one man in his time plays many parts. -- "As You Like It" Act 2 Scene 7 Lines 146-147, 149
20. FOLCSH_181024_142.JPG: The notion of the world as a stage is older than Shakespeare, but he immortalized the thought in this famous speech given by Jacques in As You Like It. Churchill's speeches in World War II often echo the theme of one person having many parts to play. During the darkest days of 1941, when the Royal Air Force was heavily attacking German cities but losing many pilots, Churchill spoke to students at Harrow. He asked to change a line in the school song from "Nor less we praise in darker days," to "sterner days." "These are not dark days," he said, "these are great days," and we should be thankful "that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part." Again, in December of 1941, Churchill echoed the idea of everyone playing a part in the war effort in a speech to the Canadian Parliament: "The mine, the factory, the dockyard … the chair of the scientist, the pulpit of the preacher – from the highest to the humblest tasks, all are of equal honour; all have their part to play."
21. FOLCSH_181024_146.JPG: "And all the men and women merely players" "Soldier" from "The Seven Ages of Man" by P.W. Tomkins after Robert Smirke. Boydell Shakespeare Gallery: London, 1801 This painting illustrates one of the Seven Ages of Man in As You Like It.
22. FOLCSH_181024_152.JPG: "Nor less we praise in sterner days" In the last page of Winston Churchill's speech at Harrow School on October 29, 1941, he refers to the Seven Ages of Man speech in As You Like It.
23. FOLCSH_181024_159.JPG: "All have their part to play" In the last page of Winston Churchill's speech to the Canadian Parliament on December 30, 1941, he returns to the idea that everyone has their own part to play in the war effort.
24. FOLCSH_181024_164.JPG: Henry V, Hamlet, and World War I And thus the native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought. -- Churchill quoting from "Hamlet" at the time of the Dardanelles campaign, 1915 Henry V and Hamlet were often invoked by the English, French and Germans during the First World War. The plays were performed by troops, read by officers before a battle, and even featured in political cartoons. During World War I, Henry V in particular was re-imagined as a play showing the long relationship between England and France, especially as 1915 marked the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt fought by Henry V. English troops performed scenes from the play in France, highlighting the union of the two countries by the marriage of Henry with French princess Katherine. They also performed Hamlet, rousing the audience of soldiers with an appearance of Henry V at the end reciting "Once more unto the breach, dear friends." In an odd coincidence, both the English and German presses reported that their officers read Hamlet to satirize both Churchill and American President Woodrow Wilson. And Churchill himself cites Hamlet against what he saw as delaying tactics employed by the Admiral of the Fleet in 1915.
25. FOLCSH_181024_167.JPG: Winston Churchill as Pistol and President Woodrow Wilson as Hamlet Cartoon from "Simplicissimus," April 18, 1916 German cartoons disparaged both the English and the Americans during World War I. Churchill is depicted as Pistol in Henry V with the caption: "Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then goes to the wars to grace himself at his return into London under the form of a soldier" (Henry V, Act 3, scene 6, lines 66-68). Wilson is shown as Hamlet, saying: "The time is out of joint: O, cursed spite/ That ever I was born to set it right!" (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5, lines 210-211).
26. FOLCSH_181024_179.JPG: Memorandum from Lord Fisher to Winston Churchill April 8, 1915 This memorandum, marked "Secret" by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher during World War I, deals with plans to attack the Dardanelles. Fisher advises delaying until the Italians have joined the Allies (at that point Britain, France and Russia): "If she [Italy] does come in, we probably get the whole of the Balkans in too and the results need no discussion. The question is -- is it worth while to risk the attack at this moment?"
27. FOLCSH_181024_183.JPG: Minute from Winston Churchill to Lord Fisher April 8, 1915 Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, responds to Fisher with a quotation from Hamlet opposing delay and caution. "And thus the native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought./ And enterprises of great pith & moment/ . . . lose the name of action." (Hamlet Act 3, scene 1, lines 92-96)
28. FOLCSH_181024_187.JPG: British Broadcasting Corporation Recording of Churchill Radio Speeches
29. FOLCSH_181024_202.JPG: Richard Burton's Hamlet
30. FOLCSH_181024_211.JPG: Richard Burton as Winston Churchill, 1974
31. FOLCSH_181024_217.JPG: My Father's Ghost: Winston, Randolph, and John Churchill I'll call thee ‘Hamlet'/ ‘King,' Father,' ‘Royal Dane.' Oh, answer me! -- "Hamlet" Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 49-50
32. FOLCSH_181024_219.JPG: Though Churchill did not see much of his father while growing up, he admired him immensely. To commemorate his father's influence in his life, Churchill wrote the story "The Dream," with a nod to Hamlet's encounter with his father's ghost. The high drama of the moment in Hamlet when the Prince sees his father's ghost on the castle rampart was echoed in Churchill's own life as he was copying a damaged portrait of his father in 1947. At the time, he wrote a short story for the family titled "The Dream": "I was drawing my father's face, gazing at the portrait … I turned round with my palette in my hand, and there, sitting in my red leather upright armchair, was my father. He looked just as I had seen him in his prime…." The ghost's appearance symbolizes the extraordinary bond between Churchill and his father, whom he considered "the greatest and most powerful influence in my early life." Churchill saw himself as part of a long family line stretching back to their common ancestor John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722). Churchill wrote major biographies of both his father and the Duke of Marlborough.
33. FOLCSH_181024_225.JPG: Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost Henry Fuseli's painting of Act 1, Scene 4 of Hamlet, engraved by Robert Thew
34. FOLCSH_181024_230.JPG: The manuscript of "the dream" This is the first page of Churchill's account of copying a portrait of his father, then seeing his ghost appear.
35. FOLCSH_181024_235.JPG: Lord Randolph Churchill, Vol. 2; London: Macmillan & Co., 1906 1906 Churchill wrote this two-volume biography of his father when he was in his early thirties, about ten years after Lord Randolph's death.
36. FOLCSH_181024_241.JPG: Ernest H. Shepard "A Family Visit" Cartoon from Punch, November 2, 1938
37. FOLCSH_181024_247.JPG: Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill
38. FOLCSH_181024_260.JPG: The Churchill Family And Shakespeare I am reading Shakespeare to Diana and Randolph & they love it…" -- Clementine Churchill, 1922 Churchill's interest in Shakespeare dates back to his early days at school, and both he and Clementine enjoyed attending the theater throughout their lives. They were less enthusiastic when their second daughter, Sarah, decided she actually wanted a career on the stage, but they came to appreciate her work. In 1953, Sarah starred as Ophelia with Maurice Evans as Hamlet in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television production of the play. All members of the family were conversant with Shakespeare and regularly engaged his language. In March of 1918, Winston wrote to Clementine from the Ritz in Paris where he was staying while meeting with Prime Minister Clemenceau of France. He includes a quotation from Henry VI Part III and encourages Clementine to read the play, adding, "I think we ought to hold them [the Germans] for the time being, but a most formidable prolonged … struggle is before us."
39. FOLCSH_181024_261.JPG: LETTER FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL TO CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL MARCH 31, 1918 Churchill writes to "My darling" from Paris during World War I negotiations. Referencing Shakespeare he says: "This battle fares like/ to the morning's war/ Where gathering clouds/ content with growing light," and continues "(You shd read the passage in Henry VIth part III)." The fact that the wording is slightly off from Shakespeare indicates that Churchill was quoting from memory.
40. FOLCSH_181024_265.JPG: Letter From Clementine Churchill To Winston Churchill About Reading Shakespeare To Their Children August 8, 1922 Clementine writes to "My Darling Winston" from the seaside: "I am reading Shakespeare to Diana & Randolph & they love it which pleases, but rather surprises me. We are just finishing The Merchant of Venice & are going on to Henry V. I am making them learn some speeches by heart . . ." Diana was thirteen and Randolph eleven.
41. FOLCSH_181024_272.JPG: Sarah Churchill as Ophelia, 1953
42. FOLCSH_181024_282.JPG: Which English ruler was Churchill writing about?
43. FOLCSH_181024_285.JPG: Shakespeare and "a history of the English-speaking peoples" Only Shakespeare has portrayed its savage yet heroic lineaments; and he does not attempt to draw conclusions. -- Churchill on the Wars of the Roses in "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" Churchill began writing A History of the English-Speaking Peoples in the 1930s, but put it on hold until after World War II. Shakespeare's works influenced his vision of the Elizabethan era, while his experience of two world wars shaped his accounts of more recent events. Churchill's four volumes of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, published between 1956 and 1958, were popular in both England and the United States. Although Churchill received help and advice from various historians, the large scheme of the history was his own. After setting the scene, he would fill in the details, writing of his method: "if facts are lacking, rumour must serve." As Churchill wrote about the early English kings and the reign of Elizabeth I, it is obvious that he had Shakespeare's history plays in mind. It is also clear that his reactions to events of the past were colored by his own experiences through two world wars. For example, he describes Henry V building up the Royal Navy, a subject dear to his own heart, having been First Lord of the Admiralty twice, at the opening of both World War I and World War II. Though today we may fault Churchill for ignoring parts of the English speaking world other than Britain and North America, in style and appeal the work is still good popular history.
44. FOLCSH_181024_289.JPG: Corrected galley proofs of "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" While writing about the siege of Harfleur in France by English King Henry V in 1415, Churchill uses lines from Shakespeare's play to describe the king's prowess: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends …/ Or close the wall up with our English dead…" (HENRY V ACT 3, SCENE 1, LINES 1-2). Churchill corrected the document in red pen.
45. FOLCSH_181024_293.JPG: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Vol. 2: The New World London: Cassell, 1956 The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 inspired a ‘New Elizabethan' revival which Churchill was keen to exploit. Writing of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Churchill notes "Shakespeare was writing King John a few years later. His words struck into the hearts of his audiences: "Come the three corners of the world in arms,/And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue/ If England to itself do rest but true" (KING JOHN, ACT 5, SCENE 7, LINES 122-124).
46. FOLCSH_181024_297.JPG: Corrected galley proofs of "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" As Churchill describes Henry V's preparations to meet the French at Agincourt, he quotes from Shakespeare's play: "If we are marked to die, we are enough/ To do our country loss; and if to live,/ The fewer men, the greater share of honour." (HENRY V ACT 4, SCENE 3, LINES 23-25) In Churchill's estimation, "Agincourt ranks as the most heroic of all the land battles England has ever fought."
47. FOLCSH_181024_302.JPG: Henry V - The Propaganda Film Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more/ Or close the wall up with our English dead! -- "Henry V" Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 1-2 As World War II ground on, the British Ministry of Information called on Churchill's friend and famous actor, Laurence Olivier, to help make films that supported the morale of the British people in those dark hours. The most well-known of these films is Henry V, which opened right after the D-Day landings in 1944. Olivier later said, "I don't think we could have won the war without ‘Once more unto the breach …' somewhere in our soldiers' hearts." The film was dedicated "To the Commandos and Airborne Troops of Great Britain," and was admired by Churchill, who saw himself as a kind of modern Henry V, leading Britain to victory. Churchill watched the film at his official country home, Chequers, in November 1944 and "went into ecstasies about it," according to his private secretary.
48. FOLCSH_181024_315.JPG: Secretary to Winston Churchill reporting message from Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh May 20, 1951 The friendship between the Churchills and Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh is made evident in the exchange displayed in this letter. Olivier received a knighthood in 1947, and was a member of the Other Club of politicians and artists founded by Churchill. After the war, in 1951, the Churchills went to see Olivier and Leigh performing the lead roles in Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra and invited them to dinner afterwards.
49. FOLCSH_181024_322.JPG: Henry V and World War II We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. -- "Henry V" Act 4, Scene 3, Line 62 At the height of the Battle of Britain in August 1940, Churchill pronounced some of his most famous speeches of the war. His moving and defiant words were reminiscent of the speech by Shakespeare's Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt. Churchill was very moved during a visit to the operations room at Uxbridge, which was tracking the course of the Battle of Britain. He said to General Ismay, "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." A few days later he used the phrase in a speech to the House of Commons, making it one of his most famous speeches of the war. Another famous speech occurred two months earlier, after the rescue of British forces from Dunkirk. Churchill rallied the nation with defiant words worthy of Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt on St. Crispin's day. Henry said, "And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, / From this day to the ending of the world,/ But we in it shall be remembered" (Act 4, Scene 3, Lines 59-61). Churchill echoed him: "if the British Empire … lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.'"
50. FOLCSH_181024_328.JPG: "Henry the Fifth" by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) edited by g.b. harrison. Harmondsworth: penguin books, 1937 Churchill was obviously stirred by Henry V's rousing speeches in Shakespeare's play. On St. Crispin's Day before the Battle of Agincourt, Henry encouraged his soldiers by promising that everyone who remembers this day will think of them, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." (Henry V, Act 4, scene 3, line 62)
51. FOLCSH_181024_333.JPG: Winston Churchill's speech "The Few" August 20, 1940 Churchill's famous speech in the House of Commons in August 1940 praises British pilots, and says in words that echo Henry V, "Never in the field of human conflict/ was so much owed by so many to so few."
52. FOLCSH_181024_338.JPG: Winston Churchill's speech "Their Finest Hour" June 18, 1940 Two months earlier, after Dunkirk, Churchill rallied the country with this defiant speech in the tone of Henry V: "Let us therefore brace ourselves to/ our duty, and so bear ourselves that/ if the British Empire . . . lasts for a/ thousand years, men will still say,/ ‘This was their finest hour.'"
53. FOLCSH_181024_344.JPG: "The Second World War Vol. 2 Their finest hour" London: Cassell, 1949 Churchill based the six volumes of his Second World War on his own notes and on documents to which he and his assistants had access. He ends Chapter XVI with references to two of his key statements: "All played their part"; and "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
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