And, father cardinal, I have heard you sayMr. Lincoln said: “Colonel, did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not a reality?--just so I dream of my boy Willie.” Overcome with emotion, he dropped his head on the table, and sobbed aloud.
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven:
If that be true, I shall see my boy again,--
“
[116]
want to read you a passage in ‘Hamlet.’
” He read the discussion on ambition between Hamlet and his courtiers, and the soliloquy, in which conscience debates of a future state.
This was followed by passages from “MacBETHeth.”
Then opening to “King John,” he read from the third act the passage in which Constance bewails her imprisoned, lost boy.
Closing the book, and recalling the words,--
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.