7 prolific in his speeches and writings, and his understanding of English history informed each discourse. As Great Britain’s leader in its darkest hours of the twentieth century, Churchill looked to Shakespeare for inspiration bolstering the prime minister and nation’s sense of shared destiny. As Murrow went on to say of Churchill, “He spoke the language of Shakespeare with a direct urgency which I have never before heard in that House.”3 Like Abraham Lincoln and many other world leaders, Churchill loved Shakespeare. His speeches are filled with references to plays from Macbeth to Hamlet to A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Churchill memorized five of Shakespeare’s plays in their entirety.4 The struggle and strife in the context of histories and tragedies spoke to the prime minister’s soul and the realities he faced. Knowing every child who had grown up in the British school system had been made well-acquainted with the Bard, Churchill could easily make direct quotes or subtle allusions, knowing his audience would not fail to grasp the reference. During World War II, no Shakespearean drama had a more significant influence upon Churchill than Henry V. In 1944, the great Shakespearean dramatist and filmmaker Laurence Olivier produced Henry V in technicolor. Churchill, who was rallying the nation against inestimable odds, wholeheartedly endorsed the project. Filming began just before the Normandy invasion, and the movie was released in November just after Churchill had marched into a newly liberated Paris. The prime minister loved Shakespeare, Olivier, Henry V, and great victories.5 Like the war in Europe, Churchill found victory to be sweet in Shakespeare’s play and Olivier’s film. During his lifetime, and certainly in the throes of battle, Churchill fashioned himself a modern Henry V. As Lehrman writes, “Churchill had the romantic imagination to feel himself an heir to King Henry V. As a young cavalry officer, he had been no less bold, no less brave.”6 Churchill referred to Henry V’s empire as “a gleam of splendour” that “falls across the dark, troubled, story of medieval England.”7 Churchill well understood the dark, troubled times of modern England and believed that like the fifteenth-century monarch, he would overcome.
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