Tag: Shakespeare

Randolph Churchill
The White House, 9 April 1963. President John F. Kennedy declares Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. On steps, front row (L-R): Undersecretary of State, George Ball, British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby-Gore, President Kennedy, Randolph Churchill. Back rows (L-R): Deputy Chief of Protocol William J. Tonesk (mostly behind Ball), Sylvia Ormsby-Gore, Randolph’s son Winston, President’s naval aide Tazewell Shepard. Secret Service agent Art Godfrey is at far right. (Photograph by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton. presented to Richard Langworth, 1988, public domain)
D-Day+80: National Celebrations, Eighty Years On

D-Day+80: National Celebrations, Eighty Years On

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And so on 6 June 1944 we launched the great crusade, as Eisenhower put it (today perhaps politically incorrectly). Western civilization was saved. Yet it was not, William F. Buckley Jr. argued, “the significance of that victory, mighty and glorious though it was, that causes the name of Churchill to make the blood run a little faster....It is the roar that we hear, when we pronounce his name….The genius of Churchill was his union of affinities of the heart and of the mind, the total fusion of animal and spiritual energy."

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Romeo and Juliet
Production of the play “Romeo and Juliet” with Jane Cowl as Juliet and the cowering Nurse at right, 1923. (White Studio, public domain)
Churchill’s Shakespeare: Quoting “Romeo and Juliet”

Churchill’s Shakespeare: Quoting “Romeo and Juliet”

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Darrell Holley offers one citation from "Romeo and Juliet." In his biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Winston writes: “Would he, under the many riddles the future had reserved for such as he, snapped the tie of sentiment that bound him to his party, resolved at last to ‘shake the yoke of inauspicious stars’….?” As so often in that better-read age, Churchill didn’t bother to cite the source, assuming most of his readers would know the source.

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John Churchill First Duke of Marlborough (mounted in red coat) at the Battle of Blenheim, 1704. (Painting by John Wootton, 1682-1764, National Army Museum, public domain)
Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

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Excerpt­ed from “Which His­tor­i­cal and Con­tem­po­rary Fig­ures were Churchill’s Inspi­ra­tions?” Writ­ten for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, Feb­ru­ary 2020. For Hillsdale’s com­plete text and illus­tra­tions, please click here.

We are often asked which his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary per­son­ages most influ­enced Win­ston Churchill’s thought and states­man­ship. One is right to start with Lord Ran­dolph Churchill, Napoleon, Clemenceau and Marl­bor­ough. The clas­sics open anoth­er avenue. Read­ers can find pithy remarks by Churchill on many of the fol­low­ing fig­ures in Churchill by Him­self.

Lord Randolph Churchill

His father was the first of young Winston’s polit­i­cal inspi­ra­tions, and the sub­ject of his first biog­ra­phy.…

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Richard II
Richard II performance in the Slovenian Folk Theater, Celje, Poland. In the photo: Alexander Crohl (Henry IV.), Volodya Peer (Henry Percy), Joze Pristov (Earl of Northumberland). Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill’s Memorable Allusions to Shakespeare’s Richard II

Churchill’s Memorable Allusions to Shakespeare’s Richard II

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“Allu­sions to Richard II” is extract­ed from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text, click here.

Richard II and “This Sceptr’d Isle.”

We are asked: “Churchill quot­ed Shakespeare’s famous lines, ‘This scepter’d isle,’ in one of his speech­es. They are the words of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan­cast­er, from Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1. Could you direct me to the speech?”

Churchill knew his Shake­speare and had a near-pho­to­graph­ic mem­o­ry. Dar­rell Holley’s Churchill’s Lit­er­ary Allu­sions tells us he alludes to Shake­speare more than any oth­er Eng­lish author. King…

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movies
(Hillsdale College Photo)
Movies and Churchill: Hillsdale College, Michigan, 24-28 March 2019

Movies and Churchill: Hillsdale College, Michigan, 24-28 March 2019

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Movies at Hillsdale

In 1927, Win­ston Churchill wrote to his wife Clemen­tine, “I am becom­ing a film fan.” He installed pro­jec­tion equip­ment for movies at Che­quers, the coun­try home of British prime min­is­ters, in 1943, and at his fam­i­ly home Chartwell in 1946.

“Churchill and the Movies” is the final event by Hillsdale’s Cen­ter for Con­struc­tive Alter­na­tives in the 2018-19 aca­d­e­m­ic year. It explores two movies regard­ed as Churchill’s favorites and two bio­graph­i­cal movies in his­tor­i­cal con­text. My lec­ture address­es Hen­ry V with Lau­rence Olivi­er. We will dis­cuss Churchill’s under­stand­ing of Shake­speare, and appli­ca­tion of the lessons of The Bard’s plays.…

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“Alles sal reg kom”: Churchill on the Royal Wedding

“Alles sal reg kom”: Churchill on the Royal Wedding

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HOUSE OF COMMONS, 22 OCTOBER 1947— “I am in entire accord with what the Prime Min­is­ter has said about Princess Eliz­a­beth and about the qual­i­ties which she has already shown, to use his words, ‘of unerr­ing gra­cious­ness and under­stand­ing and of human sim­plic­i­ty.’ He is indeed right in declar­ing that these are among the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the Roy­al House. I trust that every­thing that is appro­pri­ate will be done by His Majesty’s Gov­ern­ment to mark this occa­sion of nation­al rejoic­ing.  ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,’ and mil­lions will wel­come this joy­ous event as a flash of colour on the hard road we have to trav­el.…

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Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

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Writ­ten for a birth­day trib­ute in Octo­ber 2010….

We have all heard about the art of Tim­o­thy Robert Hardy, even though we don’t need to do so, since it is self-evi­dent. But that real­ly doesn’t mat­ter, does it? His three-decade involve­ment with the Churchill saga pro­vides a bal­sam­ic reit­er­a­tion of what we know, are glad that we know, pity those who do not know, and are proud to be asso­ci­at­ed with.

It began with his peer­less por­tray­als of Sir Win­ston in the 1981 “Wilder­ness Years” TV doc­u­men­tary; David Susskind’s 1986 “Lead­ers” series; a Lon­don stage play; the mini-series “War and Remem­brance”; and—just this August 20th—a bril­liant read­ing from Churchill’s trib­ute to “The Few” on its 70th annniver­sary.…

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Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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