Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN•37thing of infinite beauty it could be! What a whirlwind of senseand emotion!Shakspere awed him, but Bobby Burns won his love and sympathy.He felt even a kinship with Burns. Burns had been poorlike Lincoln. Burns had been born in a cabin no better thanthe one that had seen Abe's birth. Burns too had been a plowboy.But a plowboy to whom the plowing up of the nest of afield-mouse was a tiny tragedy, an event worthy of being caughtup and immortalized in a poem. Through the poetry of Burnsand Shakspere, a whole new world of meaning and feeling andloveliness opened up to Abraham Lincoln.But to him the most astounding thing of all was this: neitherShakspere nor Burns had gone to college. Neither of themhad had much more schooling and education than he.At times he dared to think that perhaps he too, the unschooledson of illiterate Tom Lincoln, might be fitted for finerthings. Perhaps it would not be necessary for him to go on foreverselling groceries or working as a blacksmith.From that time on Burns and Shakspere were his favoriteauthors. He read more of Shakspere than of all other authorsput together, and this reading left its imprint upon his style.Even after he reached the White House, when the burdens andworries of the Civil War were chiseling deep furrows in hisface, he devoted much time to Shakspere. Busy as he was, hediscussed the plays with Shaksperian authorities, and carried ona correspondence regarding certain passages. The week he wasshot, he read "Macbeth" aloud for two hours to a circle offriends.The influence of Jack Kelso, the shiftless New Salem fisherman,had reached to the White House. . . .The founder of New Salem and the keeper of the tavern wasa Southerner named James Rutledge, and he had a most attractivedaughter, Ann. She was only nineteen when Lincoln mether—a beautiful girl with blue eyes and auburn hair. Despitethe fact that she was already engaged to the richest merchant intown, Lincoln fell in love with her.Ann had already promised to become the wife of John Mc-Neil, but it was understood that they were not to be marrieduntil she had had two years of college.Lincoln had not been in New Salem very long when a strangething happened. McNeil sold his store and said that he wasreturning to New York State to bring his mother and father