The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by John Drinkwater

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Title: Abraham Lincoln

Author: John Drinkwater

Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11172]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A play by JOHN DRINKWATER

With an introduction by ARNOLD BENNETT

[Illustration: The Riverside Press]

1919

To THE LORD CHARNWOOD

NOTE

In using for purposes of drama a personality of so wide and recent a
fame as that of Abraham Lincoln, I feel that one or two observations
are due to my readers and critics.

First, my purpose is that not of the historian but of the dramatist.
The historical presentation of my hero has been faithfully made in
many volumes; notably, in England, by Lord Charnwood in a monograph
that gives a masterly analysis of Lincoln's career and character and
is, it seems to me, a model of what the historian's work should be. To
this book I am gratefully indebted for the material of my play. But
while I have, I hope, done nothing to traverse history, I have freely
telescoped its events, and imposed invention upon its movement,
in such ways as I needed to shape the dramatic significance of my
subject. I should add that the fictitious Burnet Hook is admitted
to the historical company of Lincoln's Cabinet for the purpose of
embodying certain forces that were antagonistic to the President. This
was a dramatic necessity, and I chose rather to invent a character for
the purpose than to invest any single known personage with sinister
qualities about which there might be dispute.

Secondly, my purpose is, again, that of the dramatist, not that of the
political philosopher. The issue of secession was a very intricate
one, upon which high and generous opinions may be in conflict, but
that I may happen to have or lack personal sympathy with Lincoln's
policy and judgment in this matter is nothing. My concern is with the
profoundly dramatic interest of his character, and with the inspiring
example of a man who handled war nobly and with imagination.