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The world's largest collection of material related to the English playwright was the target of the insurrectionists as they plotted to storm the U.S. Capitol. Get the full experience. The insurrectionists wrote a letter about blocking access to the building to prevent them from using it as a loophole, which was published this month in the Folger. The letter stated that the insurrectionists would surround all buildings to which the U.S. Capitol has underground tunnels in order to prevent those inside from entering. We apologize in advance for any annoyance this may cause you, but we are simply citizens practicing our 1st amendment rights and are only involving you by happenstance.
The letter was sent from Minnesota, but the library didn't receive it until after the insurrection. The library decided to preserve the letter and make it available for future generations to reference. Martin said that when the theater reopens in June, anyone can make an appointment to view the letter in the reading room. The Washington Post reported that the Library of Congress has no record of receiving a letter like this one.
It may seem odd that the insurrectionists sent the letter to the memorial. The relationship between the Bard and white nationalism has been documented for many years by scholars, who have compared it to the Jan. 6 insurrection. The introduction to the book Little edited called "White People in Shakespeare" was written by an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Shakespearean tragedy follows the assassination of Julius Caesar, the ancient Roman dictator, by a group of conspirators who thought they were protecting democracy. The January 6 insurrectionists claimed they were saving American democracy from election fraud by storming the Capitol.
While it's quite likely very few if any of those assembled at the Capitol on that day thought of Shakespeare or theatre, the resonances of a white Shakespeare haunted the insurrection. The insurrectionists wanted to do more than imagine blood on the Capitol, and five people died and hundred and fifty were injured. Minn2000 wrote on TheDonald that he had drafted a letter to the Shakespeare Library as it would be within the confines of the protest. The letter was signed by protest participants.
Shakespeare has a long history of building a white racial and cultural identity. Shakespeare is seen as a symbol of American linguistic and cultural heritage because he was English. The first director of the Shakespeare Library, a relative of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, said at the library dedication that immigrants who weren't from Northern or Western Europe "swarmed the land like the locust in Egypt." The relationship between Shakespeare and white nationalism has continued even after the Folger distanced itself from its white nationalist origins. In 1916, a New York production inspired by "The Tempest" represented an "Anglo-American claim to Shakespeare" by using Prospero's authority to represent the dominance of Western thought and portraying Caliban, a dark-skinned man. The invocation of Shakespeare in the service of white nationalism was directly related to violence. Booth and his brother starred in a production of "Julius Caesar" in which Booth was portrayed as Antony, Caesar's second-in-command. After shooting Lincoln, Booth shouted "sic semper tyrannis", "thus always to tyrants", and a quote attributed to the real Brutus, who turned on Caesar.