SHAKSPEARE MARRIED TO ANNE HATHAWAY—ACCOUNT OF THE
HATHAWAYS—COTTAGE AT SHOTTERY—BIRTH OF HIS ELDEST
CHILD, SUSANNA—HAMNET AND JUDITH BAPTIZED—ANECDOTE OF
SHAKSPEARE—APPARENTLY SETTLED IN THE COUNTRY.
Shakspeare married and became the father of a family at a very early
period; at a period, indeed, when most young men, even in his own
days, had only completed their school-education. He had probably been
attached also to the object of his affections, who resided very near to
him, for a year or two previous to the nuptial connection, which took
place in 1582; and Mr. Malone is inclined to believe that the ceremony
was performed either at Hampton-Lacy, or at Billesley, in the August of
that year[59:A], when consequently the poet had not attained the age of
eighteen and a half!
The maiden name of the lady who had induced her lover to enter thus
early on the world, with little more than his passion to console,
and his genius to support them, was _Anne Hathaway_, the daughter
of Richard Hathaway, a substantial yeoman, residing at Shottery, a
village about a mile distant from Stratford. It appears also from the
tomb-stone of his mistress[60:A] in the church of Stratford, that she
must have been born in 1556, and was therefore eight years older than
himself.
Of the family of the Hathaways little now, except the record of a
few deaths and baptisms, can be ascertained with precision: in the
register-books of the parish of Stratford, the following entry, in all
probability, refers to the father of the poet's wife:—
"Johanna, daughter of _Richard Hathaway_, otherwise Gardiner, of
Shottery, was baptized May 9, 1566."[60:B]
As the register does not commence before 1558, the baptism of _Anne_
could not of course be included; but it appears that the family of
this Richard was pretty numerous, for Thomas his son was baptized
at Stratford, April 12. 1569; John, another son, Feb. 3. 1574; and
William, another son, Nov. 30. 1578.[60:C] Thomas died at Stratford in
1654-5, at the advanced age of eighty-five.[60:D] That the Hathaways
have continued resident at Shottery and the neighbourhood, down to the
present age, will be evident from the note below, which records their
deaths to the year 1785, as inscribed on the floor, in the nave and
aisle of Stratford church.[60:E]
The cottage at Shottery, in which Anne and her parents dwelt, is said
to be yet standing, and is still pointed out to strangers as a subject
of curiosity. It is now impossible to substantiate the truth of the
tradition; but Mr. Ireland, who has given a sketch of this cottage in
his Picturesque Views on the Avon, observes, "it is still occupied
by the descendants of her family, who are poor and numerous. To this
same humble cottage I was referred when pursuing the same inquiry, by
the late Mr. Harte, of Stratford, before-mentioned. He told me there
was an old oak chair, that had always in his remembrance been called
Shakspeare's courting chair, with a purse that had been likewise his,
and handed down from him to his grand-daughter Lady Bernard, and from
her through the Hathaway family to those of the present day. From the
best information I was able to collect at the time, I was induced to
consider this account as authentic, and from a wish to obtain the
smallest trifle appertaining to our Shakspeare, I became a purchaser of
these relics. Of the chair I have here given a sketch: it is of a date
sufficiently ancient to justify the credibility of its history; and
as to farther proof, it must rest on the traditional opinion and the
character of this poor family. The purse is about four inches square,
and is curiously wrought with small black and white bugles and beads;
the tassels are of the same materials. The bed and other furniture
in the room where the chair stood, have the appearance of so high
antiquity, as to leave no doubt but that they might all have been the
furniture of this house long before the time of Shakspeare.
"The proprietor of this furniture, an old woman upwards of seventy, had
slept in the bed from her childhood, and was always told it had been
there since the house was built. Her absolute refusal to part with this
bed at any price was one of the circumstances which led to a persuasion
that I had not listened with too easy credulity to the tale she told
me respecting the articles I had purchased. By the same person I was
informed, that at the time of the Jubilee, the late George Garrick
obtained from her a small inkstand, and a pair of fringed gloves, said
to have been worn by Shakspeare."[61:A]
Of the personal charms of the poet's mistress nothing has been
transmitted to us by which we can form the smallest estimate, nor can
we positively ascertain whether convenience, or the attraction of a
beautiful form, was the chief promoter of this early connection. Mr.
Rowe merely observes, that, "in order to settle in the world after a
family-manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very[62:A]
young;" language which seems to imply that _prudence_ was the prime
motive with the youthful bard. Theobald proceeds still further, and
declares "it is _probable_, a view of _interest_ might partly sway his
conduct in this point: for he married the daughter of a _substantial_
yeoman in his neighbourhood, _and she had the start of him in age no
less than eight years_."[62:B] Capell, on the contrary, thinks that
the marriage was contracted against the wishes of his father, whose
displeasure was the consequence of their union.[62:C]
A moment's consideration of the character of Shakspeare will induce
us to conclude that _interest_ could not be his _leading_ object in
forming the matrimonial tie. In no stage of his subsequent life does a
motive of this kind appear strongly to have influenced him; and it is
well known, from facts which we shall have occasion shortly to record,
that his juvenility at Stratford was marked, rather by carelessness
and dissipation, than by the cool calculations of pecuniary wisdom.
In short, to adopt, with slight variation, a line of his own, we may
confidently assert that at this period,
"Love and Liberty crept in the mind and marrow of his youth."
_Timon of Athens._
Neither can we agree with Mr. Capell in supposing that the father of
our bard was averse to the connection; a supposition which he has built
on the idea of old Mr. Shakspeare being "a man of no little substance,"
and that by this marriage of his son he was disappointed in a design
which he had formed of sending him to an [62:D]University! Now it
has been proved that John Shakspeare was, at this period, if not in
distressed yet in embarrassed circumstances, and that neither the
school-education of his son, nor his subsequent employment at home,
could be such as was calculated in any degree to prepare him for an
academical life.
We conclude, therefore, and certainly, with every probability on our
side, that the young poet's attachment to Anne Hathaway was, not only
perfectly disinterested, but had met likewise with the approbation of
his parents. This will appear with more verisimilitude if we consider,
in the first place, that though his bride were eight years older than
himself, still she could be but in her twenty-sixth year, an age
compatible with youth, and with the most alluring beauty; secondly, it
does not appear that the finances of young Shakspeare were in the least
improved by the connection; and thirdly, we know that he remained some
years at Stratford after his marriage, which it is not likely that he
would have done, had he been at variance with his father.
It is to be regretted, and it is indeed somewhat extraordinary, that
not a fragment of the bard's poetry, addressed to his Warwickshire
beauty, has been rescued from oblivion; for that the muse of Shakspeare
did not lie dormant on an occasion so propitious to her inspiration
we must believe, both from the costume of the times, and from his own
amatory disposition. He has himself told us that
"Never durst poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's sighs."—
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv. sc. 3.
and we have seen that an opportunity for qualification was very early
placed within his power. That he availed himself of it, there can be no
doubt; and had his effusions, on this occasion, descended to posterity,
we should, in all probability, have been made acquainted with several
interesting particulars relative to his early life and character, and
to the person and disposition of his mistress.[63:A]
Our ignorance on this subject, however, would have been compensated,
had any authentic documents been preserved relative to his
establishment at Stratford, in consequence of his marriage; but of his
domestic arrangements, of his business or professional employment, no
information, or tradition to be depended upon, has reached us. We can
only infer, from the evidence produced in the preceding chapter, and
from the necessity, which must now have occurred, of providing for a
family-establishment, that if, as we have reason to conclude, he had
entered on the exercise of a branch of the manorial law, previous to
his marriage, and with a view towards that event, he would, of course,
be compelled, from prudential motives, to continue that occupation,
after he had become a householder, and most probably to combine with it
the business of a woolstapler, either on his own separate interest, or
in concert with his father.
If any further incitement were wanting to his industry, it was soon
imparted; for, to the claims upon him as a husband, were added, during
the following year, those which attach to the name of a parent; his
eldest child, Susanna, being born in May 1583, and baptized on the 26th
of the same month. Thus, scarcely had our poet completed his nineteenth
year, when the most serious duties of life were imperiously forced
upon his attention, under circumstances perhaps of narrow fortune not
altogether calculated to render their performance easy and pleasant;
a situation which, on a superficial view, would not appear adapted to
afford that leisure, that free and unincumbered state of intellect,
so necessary to mental exertion; but with Shakspeare the pressure of
these and of pecuniary difficulties served only to awaken that energy
and elasticity of mind, which, ultimately directing his talents into
their proper channel, called forth the brightest and most successful
emanations of a genius nearly universal.
The family of the youthful bard gathered round him with rapidity; for,
in 1584-5, it was increased by the birth of twins, a son and daughter,
named Hamnet and Judith, who were baptized on February the 2d, of the
same year.
The boy was christened by the name of Hamnet in compliment to his
god-father Mr. Hamnet Sadler, and the girl was called Judith, from a
similar deference to his wife, Mrs. Judith Sadler, who acted as her
sponsor. Mr. Hamnet or Hamlet Sadler, for they were considered as
synonymous names, and therefore used indiscriminately[65:A], appears
to have been some relation of the Shakspeare family; he is one of
the witnesses to Shakspeare's will, and is remembered in it in the
following manner:—"_Item_, I give and bequeath to Hamlet Sadler
twenty-six shillings eight-pence, to buy him a ring." Mr. Sadler died
at Stratford in October 1624, and is supposed to have been born about
the year 1550. His wife was buried there March 23. 1613-14, and Mr.
Malone conjectures that our poet was probably god-father to their son
_William_, who was baptized at Stratford, February 5. 1597-8.[65:B] In
the Stratford Register are to be found entries of the baptism of six of
Mr. Sadler's children, four sons and two daughters, William being the
last but one.
An anecdote of Shakspeare, unappropriated to any particular period of
his life, and which may with as much, if not more, probability, be
ascribed to this stage of his biography, as to any subsequent era, has
been preserved as a tradition at Stratford. A drunken blacksmith, with
a carbuncled face, reeling up to Shakspeare, as he was leaning over a
mercer's door, exclaimed, with much vociferation,
"Now, Mr. SHAKSPEARE, tell me, if you can,
The difference between a youth and a young man:"
a question which immediately drew from our poet the following reply:
"Thou son of fire, with _thy face like a maple_,
The same difference as between a scalded and a coddled apple."
A part of the wit of this anecdote, which, says Mr. Malone, "was
related near fifty years ago to a gentleman at Stratford, by a
person then above eighty years of age, whose father might have been
contemporary with Shakspeare," turns upon the comparison between the
blacksmith's face and a species of maple, the bark of which, according
to Evelyn, is uncommonly rough, and the grain undulated and crisped
into a variety of curls.
It would appear, indeed, from a book published in 1611, under the
title of _Tarleton's Jeasts_, that this fancied resemblance was a
frequent source of sarcastic wit; for it is there recorded of this once
celebrated comedian, that, "as he was performing some part 'at the Bull
in Bishopsgate-street, where the Queen's players oftentimes played,'
while he was 'kneeling down to aske his father's blessing,' a fellow
in the gallery threw an apple at him, which hit him on the cheek.
He immediately took up the apple, and, advancing to the audience,
addressed them in these lines:
'Gentlemen, this fellow, with _his face of mapple_,
Instead of a pippin hath throwne me an apple;
But as for an apple he hath cast a crab,
So instead of an honest woman God hath sent him a drab.'
'The people,' says the relator, 'laughed heartily; for the fellow had a
quean to his wife.'"[66:A]
Shakspeare was now, to all appearance, settled in the country; he
was carrying on his own and his father's business; he was married
and had a family around him; a situation in which the comforts of
domestic privacy might be predicted within his reach, but which augured
little of that splendid destiny, that universal fame and unparalleled
celebrity, which awaited his future career.
In adherence, therefore, to the plan, which we have announced, of
connecting the circumstances of the times with our author's life,
we have chosen this period of it, as admirably adapted for the
introduction of a survey of country life and manners, its customs,
diversions and superstitions, as they existed in the age of Shakspeare.
These, therefore, will be the subject of the immediately following
chapters, in which it shall be our particular aim, among the numerous
authorities to which we shall be obliged to have recourse, to draw
from the poet himself those passages which throw light upon the topics
as they rise to view; an arrangement which, when it shall have been
carried, in all its various branches, through the work, will clearly
show, that from Shakspeare, more than from any other poet, is to be
collected the history of the times in which he lived, so far as that
history relates to popular usage and amusement.
FOOTNOTES:
[59:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 139. note 4.
[60:A] "Heere Lyeth Interrid The Bodye of Anne, Wife of Mr. William
Shakespeare, Who Depted. This Life The 6th Day of Avgvst, 1623, Being
of The Age of 67 Yeares."—Wheler's Stratford, p. 76.
[60:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 133.
[60:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 134. Note by Malone.
[60:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 128.
[60:E] "Richard Hathaway, of Shottery, died 15th April, 1692. Robert
Hathaway died 4th March, 1728, aged 64. Edmund Hathaway died 14th
June, 1729, aged 57. Jane his wife died 12th Dec. 1729, aged 64. John
Hathaway died 11th Oct. 1731, aged 39. Abigail, wife of John Hathaway,
jun. of Luddington, died 5th of May, 1735, aged 29. Mary her daughter
died 13th July, 1735, aged 10 weeks. Robert Hathaway, son of Robert
and Sarah Hathaway, died the 1st of March, 1723, aged 21. Ursula, wife
of John Hathaway, died the 23d of Janry. 1731, aged 50. John Hathaway,
sen. died the 5th of Sept. 1753, aged 73. John Hathaway, of Haddington,
died the 23d of June, 1775, aged 67. S. H. 1756. S. H. 1785."—Wheler's
History and Antiquities of Stratford-upon-Avon, p. 55.
[61:A] Ireland's Views, p. 206-209.
[62:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 60.
[62:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 193.
[62:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 355. note 1.
[62:D] Ibid.
[63:A] Building on the high credibility of Shakspeare having employed
his poetical talents, at this period, on the subject nearest to his
heart, two ingenious gentlemen have been so obliging as not only to
furnish him with words on this occasion, but to offer these to the
world as the genuine product of his genius. It is scarcely necessary to
add, that I allude to the Shakspeare Papers of young Ireland; and to a
Tour in Quest of Genealogy, by a Barrister.
[65:A] Thus in the will of Shakspeare we read, "I give and bequeath to
_Hamlet_ Sadler;" when at the close, Mr. Sadler as a witness writes
his Christian name _Hamnet_. See Malone's note on this subject, Reed's
Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 135.
[65:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 158, note 1.
[66:A] Malone's Historical Account of the English Stage, Reed's
Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 140. note 4.