Grant Shakespeare/Grant/Desdemona/????

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5fish

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Shakespeare dead this week 400 years ago and I have been listening to many stories involving him in American history. There is the story of when Grant played Desdemona in Othello in Texas right before the Mexican -American war. In the story Longstreet gets the Desdemona role but Grant is recruited for the role...

That December, officers decided to stage "Othello." They looked for someone to play the beautiful Desdemona. Grant was urged to try out for the part. He had a trim figure and almost girlish good looks; his friends called him "Beauty." Though the costume fit perfectly, the officer playing the Moor couldn't look at Grant without laughing. They sent to New Orleans for a professional actress to play Desdemona. After that, Grant grew a beard to hide his girlish good looks. He was "Beauty" no more.

http://www.caller.com/columnists/mu...in-corpus-christi-ep-359333747-316210321.html

I saw this odd nickname for Grant and dug further...

Grant entered the Mexican War in 1846 as a quartermaster and, although he would distinguish himself more than once in battle, he had to endure constant ribbing from his fellow soldiers. Apparently some of the officers in his regiment called him "Little Beauty," a nickname mocking his good looks. According to an early biographer, Grant "had a girl's primness of manner and modesty of conduct. He was almost half-woman. He was small and slender. His voice was always soft, clear and musical, and his hands had the long, tapering fingers of a woman."

http://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/bio/grant.html

It seems Grant had effeminacy issues and likely from his youth. It means Grant had feminine mannerism It might explain why he like to hang with horses and his dad sent him off to West Point. Effeminacy issues do not go away unless you bury them deep inside one self. It would explain his drinking because the rest of his personality points towards someone who would not be an alcoholic... He was embarrassed by the event and grew a bread and rejected his true self. He lived a false life...
 
Can we add a dislike button?

I only follow what where the facts take me. I found an old bio of Grant that talks about his feminine nature. It was by W. E. Woodward, Meeting General Grant (1928). He is know for the word "bunk" and "debunk"....

I found this because something seem off...
 
It means Grant had feminine mannerism It might explain why he like to hang with horses and his dad sent him off to West Point. Effeminacy issues do not go away unless you bury them deep inside one self. It would explain his drinking because the rest of his personality points towards someone who would not be an alcoholic... He was embarrassed by the event and grew a bread and rejected his true self. He lived a false life...
So "hanging with horses" is a big giveaway for a father to question his son's sexual orientation and send him off to a military academy. Huh! And what "event" caused Grant to grow a beard and reject his "true self"? And linking his drinking to this is somewhat iffy. And what criteria do you as a laymen have to suggest that this unease with living a "false life" caused his drinking. And what personalities are more prone to alcoholism.

And by the way- JEB Stuart also had the nickname "Beauty". And he loved horses and pretty girls equally well.
 
Grant at 23 looked 12...not feminine. By

Now, I pointing out he was teased for his feminine Mannerisms. He was recruited for Desdemona because he was the most feminine of the officers. He was described as being more feminine then his hands.

Huh! And what "event" caused Grant to grow a beard and reject his "true self"?

He was embarrassed by the whole female role part he was forced to participate in. He grows a bread and later cigars and then hard drinking all manly persuits. I pointing out Grant had to hide his true self.
 
It was that time's way of describing a man's softer side, not his gay side.

Maybe it was a way of describing a man in the 19th century but Grant was teased for it... so it was more then just a description.
I like for you to look up Grant's West Point roommate Union General Thomas Wood... a another smallish man. It seems we now know why they were made roommates.
 
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