1862

Oberon and Titania. Punch, Volume 42, April 5, 1862, p. 137

President Lincoln here assumes the role of Oberon, King of the Fairies, in a scene based on Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act II, Scene 1). In the play's text, Oberon importunes his consort, the fairy queen Titania, for "a little changeling boy" to be his companion. She contemptuously rejects his advances, declaring that "thy fairy land buys not the child of me." In their ensuing quarrel, all manner of disasters are let loose upon the land and its inhabitants.

Tenniel's representations may reflect actual period conventions for staging Shakespeare's play, as well as the manner in which performers were identified in playbills. "Mr. President Lincoln" is clad in a Greek tunic, embellished with the stars and stripes--a motif which also appears on his stylized wings. "Miss Virginia" is attired in a billowing gossamer gown, her long hair unbound; the "stars and bars" can be discerned in her wings. The two wear identical star-spangled Phrygian caps, headgear of Persian origin distinguished by the forward curling soft peak, and used in classical art for an exotic effect. Phrygian caps had been popular in America and France during their respective Revolutions of the late eighteenth century, when they were also known as "Liberty caps."

During the early months of the war, the idea of gradual, compensated emancipation was proposed by some in the North (and actually considered by Lincoln) as a way of appealing to the economic interests of Southerners: under this plan, the Federal government would, over a period of time, pay slave owners to liberate their human property. The former slaves would then be resettled in Africa or Central America. This proposal was ultimately rejected by both sides, for reasons of principle as well as practicality. Northern abolitionists and Southern apologists for slavery both claimed to be acting in the best interests of African Americans, represented in this cartoon by a slave child confused and frightened at the argument raging over his fate.