The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1857-02-18


SHAKspEARE's MARR1AGE.-The gleanings of
Iotraditon excepted, the first knowledge that has
reached US of the poet, after his baptism has
reference to his marriage. Rowe states that
che thought fit to marry while he was vet We
~ young" and that ''his wife was the daugh-
ter of one Hathaway, said to have been sub
stantal yeoman in the neighborhood of STRAIT
tord,' and later disclosures prove that Rowe
must have had access to good sources of in
formation. The marriage took place in the fall
of 1862, 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 forty pounds sterling, 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 autho-
rise the ceremony after once publishing the bans.
The original ban is preserved at Worcester,
with the marks and seals Of the two bondsinen
affixed, and also bearing a seal with the initials
R. H., as fto show that the brides father. Rich
ard Hathaway, was present and consented
The parish books all about Stratford and Wor-
eester have been ransacked, but no registry of
the marriage has been discovered The prob
ability seems to be that the ceremony took place
in some of the neigbborng parishes, perhaps
Weston or BiIlesley or Luddington, where the
registers Of that period have not been preserved
Anne Hathaway was of Shottery, a pleasant
village situated within an easy walk of Strait
ford, and belonging to the same parish. No
registry of baptism has come to light; but the
baptism register of Stratford did not commence
till 558. She died on the 9th of August, 1898,
and the nscri ption on her monument informs
us that she WAS sixty seven years of age. Her
birth, therefore, must have occurred in 1856,
eight years before that Of her husbands
The poets match was evidently a love match;
whether the love was Of that kind which forms
the best pledge of welded happiness is another
question: 1t seems not unlikely that the mar
rlage may have been preceded by the ancient
ceremony of troth plight, or hand FAST as it was
sometimes called, like that which all but takes
place between Florizell and Perdita, in act ~,
scene 3, Of Winters Tale, and quite takes place
between Olivia and Sebastian in Twelfth Night,
act ", scene 3, and which the priest there Of
fciating describes thus:
ga contract ofaterna bond Of love,
Confirmed by mutual joindcr of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,
Dy ICndiSe1IellG 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, for long time after. Tn some
places 1t had the force and effect Of an actual
marriage; and if the parties were formally uni
ted within a reasonable time, their reputation
stood perfectly clear, whatever may have hap
pencd in the interim. Evils, however, often
grew out of and the church has done 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 Anna Hathaway, it is certain from the
parish register that they had daughter, Su-
sanna, baptised on the Goth of May, 1858, not
quite six months after the date of the mar
riage bond.
Some Of the poets later biographies and crit
les have taken it upon them to suppose that he
was not happy in his marriage. Certain pas
sages in his plays, especially the charming dia-
loyue between the duke and the disguised Vio-
la, in act II, scene 4, of Twelfth Night, have
been cited as involving some reference to the
poets own case, or as suggested by what him
self had experienced of the evils resulting from,
the wedlock Of persons ''misgratfed in respect
w HSiC as lIC 'ti tilltl LuCiS
conjecture for this notion.
Rowe mentions nothing of the kind, and We
may be sure that his candoro would not have
spared the poet had tradition offered him any
such matter AS for the passages in bis plays,
we cannot discover the slightest reason for sup
posing that'the poet had any other than a pure
ly dramatic purpose in them. That Shakespeare
was more CT less separated from his wife for a
,l,- L., l,.+ Al
he ever found OF sought any relief or comfort
in such separation is what we have no warrant
for believing. 1t was simply forced upon him
by the necessities Of his condition. The dar-
ling object Of bis 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 but a wish
to forget them or be forgotten by them. From
what is known of bis subsequent course, it is
certain that he had in a large measure that
honorable ambition, so natural to an English
gentleman, of becoming the founder of fami
ly; and as soon as he had reached the hope Of
doing so, he retired to his own home, an1 there
set up his rest, as if his best sunshine of life
still waited on the presence of her from whose
society he is alleged to have fed away in dis
appointment and disgust
10 Anne Hathaway, We have little doubt,
"ere addressed in his early morn of love, the
three sonnets playing on the authors name,
numbered cxxxv, cxxxv1, and BxxxLr, as origin
ally printed. These have indeed very little mer
it; they are framed with TOO much art; or else
with too little. to express any real passion; in
short, both the matter and sty le in them are
hardly good enough to have been his at any
time, certainly none too good to have been the
work of his boyhood. And we have seen no
conjecture on the point that bears greater like
lihood of truth than that another three, far diff
ferent i'll merit--the xcMI, xcvII, xcIx, were
much later in life, to the same OBJ
ject 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 personal feeling, as dstin-
guished from mere exercises of fancy; and they
speak, with unsurpassabe tenderness, of fire.
luent absences, such as before the sonnets were