Existing comment:
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. |