Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, Volume I. | Page 7

was he of an age to
go thither without his father. Positive evidence either way on the point
there is none; nor can I discover any thing in his plays that would fairly
infer him to have drunk in the splendour of that occasion, however the
fierce attractions thereof may have kindled a mind so brimful of poetry
and life. The whole matter is an apt theme for speculation, and for
nothing else.
The gleanings of tradition apart, the first knowledge that has reached us
of the Poet, after his baptism, has reference to his marriage. Rowe tells
us that "he thought fit to marry while he was very young," and that "his
wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial
yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford." These statements are borne
out by later disclosures. The marriage took place in the Fall of 1582,
when the Poet was in his nineteenth year. On the 28th of November,
that year Fulk Sandels and John Richardson subscribed a bond whereby
they became liable in the sum of £40, to be forfeited to the Bishop of
Worcester in case there should be found any lawful impediment to the
marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, of Stratford; the
object being to procure such a dispensation from the Bishop as would
authorize the ceremony after once publishing the banns. The original
bond is preserved at Worcester, with the marks and seals of the two
bondsmen affixed, and also bearing a seal with the initials R.H., as if to
show that some legal representative of the bride's father, Richard
Hathaway, was present and consenting to the act. There was nothing
peculiar in the transaction; the bond is just the same as was usually

given in such cases, and several others like it are to be seen at the office
of the Worcester registry.
The parish books all about Stratford and Worcester have been
ransacked, but no record of the marriage has been discovered. The
probability is, that the ceremony took place in some one of the
neighbouring parishes where the registers of that period have not been
preserved.
Anne Hathaway was of Shottery, a pleasant village situate within an
easy walk of Stratford, and belonging to the same parish. No record of
her baptism has come to light, but the baptismal register of Stratford
did not begin till 1558. She died on the 6th of August, 1623, and the
inscription on her monument gives her age as sixty-seven years. Her
birth, therefore, must have been in 1556, eight years before that of her
husband.
From certain precepts, dated in 1566, and lately found among the
papers of the Stratford Court of Record, it appears that the relations
between John Shakespeare and Richard Hathaway were of a very
friendly sort. Hathaway's will was made September 1, 1581, and
proved July 19, 1582, which shows him to have died a few months
before the marriage of his daughter Anne. The will makes good what
Rowe says of his being "a substantial yeoman." He appoints Fulk
Sandels one of the supervisors of his will; and among the witnesses to
it is the name of William Gilbert, then curate of Stratford. One item of
the will is: "I owe unto Thomas Whittington, my shepherd, £4 6s. 8d."
Whittington died in 1601; and in his will he gives and bequeaths "unto
the poor people of Stratford 40s. that is in the hand of Anne
Shakespeare, wife unto Mr. William Shakespeare." The careful old
shepherd had doubtless placed the money in Anne Shakespeare's hand
for safe keeping, she being a person in whom he had confidence.
The Poet's match was evidently a love-match: whether the love was of
that kind which forms the best pledge of wedded happiness, is another
question. It is not unlikely that the marriage may have been preceded
by the ancient ceremony of troth-plight, or handfast, as it was
sometimes called; like that which almost takes place between Florizel
and Perdita in _The Winter's Tale_, and quite takes place between
Olivia and Sebastian in Twelfth Night. The custom of troth-plight was
much used in that age, and for a long time after. In some places it had

the force and effect of an actual marriage. Serious evils, however,
sometimes grew out of it; and the Church of England did wisely, no
doubt, in uniting the troth-plight and the marriage in one and the same
ceremony. Whether such solemn betrothment had or had not taken
place between William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, it is certain
from the parish register that they had a daughter, Susanna, baptized on
the 26th of May, 1583.
Some of the Poet's later biographers and critics have supposed he was
not happy in his marriage. Certain passages of his plays, especially