Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-02-11
From Hudson Life Of the Poet.
shakspeare's Marriage.

1852, when the poet was in his nineteenth year.
On the 18th of November, that year, Fulk San
dels and John Richardson subscribed bond
whereby they became liable in the sum of forty
pounds sterling, to be forfeited to the Bishop OF
Worcester, in case there should be found any
lawful impeachment to the marriage of William
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, of Strattord ;
the object being to procure such dispensatlon
from the bishop as would authorize the cere-
mony after once publishing the bans. The orl-
ginal bond is preserved at Worcester, with tne
marks and seals of the two bondsnen affixed,
and also bearing seal with the initials Il. H.,
as if to show that the brides father, Richard
Hathaway, was present and consenting to the
act.
The parish books all about Stratford and Wor-
cester have been ransacked, but no registry OF
the marriage has been discovered. lhe prop
ability seems to be, that the ceremony took place
in some one of the neighboring parishes, perhaps
Weston or Billesley, or Luddington, where the
registers of that period have not been preserved
Anne Hathaway was of Shottery, pleasant VII
lage situated within an easy walk of Stratiord,
and belonging to the same parish. NO registry
of her baptism has come to light; but the pap
tismal register of Strattord did not commence
till 1868 She died on the 9th OF August, 1913,
and the inscription on her monument informs
us that she was sixty years OF age Her
birth, therefore, must have occurred In loo6,
eight years before that OF her husband.
The poets match was evidently love-match ;
whether the love were of that kind which forms
the best pledge of welded happiness, is another
question. 1t seems not unlikely that the marri-
aoe NAV have been preceded by the ancient cere-
al, 1.,.l,+ Io1 fJsf
sometimes called like that which all but takes
place between Florizell and Perdita, in Act iv.
sec. 8. of The Winters Tale, and quite takes
place between Olivia aud Sebastian in Twelfth
Night. Act iv. sec. 8 and which the priest there
officiating describes thus:
"a contract of eternal bond oflove,
Confirmed by mutual jomder ofyour hands,
Attested by the holy close OF lips,
Strengthened by nerchangement Of your rings;
And all the ceremony of this compact
Sealed IN my function, by my testimony.
The custom of troth plight was much used in
that age, and for long time after. In some
places it had the force and effect of an actual
marriage and if the parties were formally unit
ed within reasonable time, their reputation
stood perfectly clear, whatever may have hap
pened in the interim. Evils, however, often
grew out of it {; and the church has done wisely,
no doubt, in uniting the troth-plght and the
marriage in one and the same ceremony. Whetll-
er such solemn betrothment had or had not
taken place between Wm. Shakespeare and Anne
Hathaway, it is certain from the parish register,
that they had daughter, Susanna, baptised on
the Goth of May, 1858, not quite six months al
ter the date of the marrage-bond
''Some Of the poets later biographers and crit
les have taken it upon them to suppose that he
was not happy in his marriage. Certain pass
ages in his plays, especially the charming dialo-
que between the Duke and the disguised Viola
in Act ii. Sec 4, of Twelfth Night, have been
cited as involving some reference to the poets
own case, or as suggested by what himself had
experienced of the evils resulting from the we'd
lock of persons 'nisgraffed in respect OF years.
There was never anything but mere conjecture
for this notion. Rowe mentions nothing Of the
kind. and we may be sure that his candor would
not have spared the poet, had tradition offered
him any such matter. As for the passage in his
plavs, we cannot discover the slightest reason
for supposing that the poet had any other than
purely dramatic purpose in them. That Shak-
speare was more or less separated from his wife
for q number of years, cannot be questioned ;
but that he ever found or sought relief or COM
fort in such separations what we have no war
rant in believing. 1t was simply forced upon
him by the necessities of his condition. The
darling object of his London life evidently was,
as will be seen hereafter, that he might return
to his native town with handsome competence,
and dwell in the bosom Of his family; and the
yearly visits, which tradition reports him to have
made to Stratford, look like anything buta wish
to forget them, or be forgotten by them. From
what is known of his subsequent course, 1t is
certain that he had in large measure that hon
orable ambition, so natural to an English gentle
man, of becoming the founder of q family; and
rs soon as he had reached the hope of doing so,
he retired to his old home, and there set up his
rest as if his best sunshine of life still waited on
the presence of her from whose society he is al
leged to have fed away in disappointment and
disgust.
To Anne Hathaway,we have little doubt, were
addressed, in his early morn of love, the three
sonnets playing on the authors name, numbered
oxxXy., oxXXvI., and CXXxLI.,as originally prln"
ted. These have indeed very little merit; they
are framed with too much art, or else with too
little, to express any real passion; in short, both
the matter and style of them are hardly good E.
nough to have been his at any time, certainly
none too good to have been the work OF his boy
hood. And we have seen no conjecture on the
point tnat OearS Sreatef lheLio"' vi Iiutii' 'ii.
that another three, far different in merit-the
xcyu, xoyII1. xcIx-were addressed, much Ia
ter in life, to the same object The prevailing
tone and imagery Of them are such as he would
hardly have used but with a woman in his
thoughts; they are full-fraught with deep per
sonal feeling as distinguished from mere exer-
cses of fancy and they speak, with unsurpass-
able tenderness, of frequent absences, such as,
before the sonnets were first printed, the poet
had experienced from the wife of his BOSOM
We feel morally certain that she was the inspir-
er of them"
A WHOLE FAMILY IN HEAvEN.-The follow