Anne Hathaway (1556 – August 6, 1623) was the wife of William Shakespeare. Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. William Shakespeare ( baptised Very little is known about her, beyond a few references in legal documents, but her personality and relationship to Shakespeare have been the subject of much speculation by historians and creative writers.

Life

The Hathaway family cottage near Stratford.

Anne Hathaway is believed to have grown up in Shottery, a small village just to the west of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Shottery is a small Village a mile west of Stratford-Upon-Avon; nowadays it is considered a part of the town but it retains the feeling of a distinct village Stratford-upon-Avon (ˌstrætfɚd əpɒn ˈɛɪvən is a Market town and Civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. Geography Warwickshire is bounded to the northwest by the West Midlands Metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland She is assumed to have grown up in the farmhouse that was the Hathaway family home, which is located at Shottery, and is now a major tourist attraction for the village. Her father, Richard Hathaway, was a yeoman farmer. Yeoman is noun used to indicate a variety of positions or Social classes In the 16th century a yeoman was also a Farmer of middling social status who owned He died in September 1581, and bequeathed Anne the sum of £6, 13s, 4d (six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence) to be paid "at the day of her marriage". ^[1]

Hathaway married William Shakespeare in November 1582 while pregnant with his child. Hathaway was 26 years of age when she married, whereas Shakespeare was only 18. This age difference, and Hathaway's pregnancy, has been used by some historians as evidence that this was a "shotgun wedding" forced on a reluctant Shakespeare by Hathaway's family. A shotgun wedding is a Wedding that is arranged to avoid embarrassment due to an unplanned Pregnancy, rather than out of the desire of the participants There is, however, no reliable evidence for this inference.

This argument was apparently supported by documents from the Episcopal Register at Worcester, which records in Latin the issuing of wedding licence to "Wm Shaxpere" and one "Anne Whatley" of Temple Grafton. Temple Grafton is a village near Alcester, which lies within the Stratford-upon-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The day afterwards Fulk Sandells and John Richardson, relatives of Hathaway from Stratford, signed a surety of £40 as a financial guarantee for the wedding of "Willam Shagspere and Anne Hathwey". A surety is a person who agrees to be responsible for the Debt or obligation of another Frank Harris in The Man Shakespeare (1909), argued that these documents were evidence that Shakespeare was involved with two women. Frank Harris ( February 14, 1856 &ndash August 27, 1931) was a naturalised American Author of British origin editor, He had chosen to marry Whatley, but when this became known he was immediately forced by Hathaway's family to marry their pregnant relative. According to the Oxford Companion to Shakespeare most modern scholars take the view that the name Whatley was "almost certainly the result of clerical error". ^[2]

Germaine Greer argues that the age difference between William and Anne was typical of couples of their time. Germaine Greer (born 29 January 1939 is an Australian born Writer, Academic, Journalist and Scholar of early modern English literature Women, such as the orphaned Anne, often stayed at home to care for younger siblings and married in their late 20s, and often to younger eligible men. Furthermore a "handfast" marriage and pregnancy were frequent precursors to legal marriage at the time. Certainly Shakespeare was bound to marry her having made her pregnant, but there is no reason to assume that had not always been his intention. It is likely the bride and groom's families had known one another. ^[3]

Three children were born to Anne: Susanna in 1583, and the twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585. Susanna Hall ( Née Shakespeare) (May 1583 &ndash 1648 was the eldest child of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. Hamnet Shakespeare ( Baptised February 2 1585 – Buried August 11 1596) was the only son of William Shakespeare "Judith Shakespeare" redirects here For Virginia Woolf's fictional Judith see A Room of One's Own Judith Quiney ( Née

It has often been inferred that Shakespeare came to dislike his wife, but there is no existing documentation or correspondence to support this supposition. For most of their married life, he lived in London, writing and performing his plays, while Hathaway stayed in Stratford. However, when Shakespeare retired from the theatre in 1613, he chose to live in Stratford, not London.

Much has been read into the bequest Shakespeare famously made in his will, leaving Anne only the "second-best bed. " A few explanations have been offered for Shakespeare's bequest. Firstly, it has been claimed that according to law Hathaway was entitled to receive one third of her husband's estate regardless of his will. ^[4]. Second, it has been speculated that Hathaway would be supported by her children. More recently Germaine Greer has come up with a new explanation based on research into other wills and marriage settlements of the time and place. She disputes the claim that widows were automatically entitled to a third of the estate,^[5] and suggests that a condition of the marriage of Shakespeare's eldest daughter Susanna to a financially sound husband was probably that Susanna (and thus her husband) inherited the bulk of Shakespeare's estate. Susanna Hall ( Née Shakespeare) (May 1583 &ndash 1648 was the eldest child of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. This would also explain other examples of Shakespeare's will being apparently ungenerous, such as the treatment of his younger daughter Judith. "Judith Shakespeare" redirects here For Virginia Woolf's fictional Judith see A Room of One's Own Judith Quiney ( Née Greer also discusses some indications tending to support speculation that Anne may have been financially secure in her own right. ^[6] The National Archives states that "beds and other pieces of household furniture were often the sole bequest to a wife," and that customarily the children would receive the best items, and the widow the second-best. The National Archives (TNA is a British Governmental organisation created in April 2003 to maintain a National archive for " England, Wales ^[7] In Shakespeare's time the beds of prosperous citizens were expensive affairs, sometimes to the value of a small house. The bequest was thus not as minor as it might seem to a modern person. ^[8] Finally, in Elizabethan custom, the best bed in the house was reserved for guests. Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era Therefore, the bed that Shakespeare bequeathed to Anne could have been their marital bed, and thus significant. ^[9] The simple fact though is that Shakespeare, the last surviving of his brothers, was an old man for his times and Anne was eight years older than him. She may well have been feeble and dependent on her daughters. He would not have expected her to outlive him by any great length of time, and thus it made sense to leave the estate directly to her daughters.

Anne in literature

Shakespeare's sonnets

One of Shakespeare's sonnets, number 145, has been claimed to make reference to Anne Hathaway; the words 'hate away' may be a pun (in Elizabethan pronunciation) on 'Hathaway'. Shakespeare's sonnets, or simply The Sonnets, is a collection of Poems in Sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with Synopsis The poet's lover seems to be about say she hates him despite his devotion to her It has also been suggested that the next words, "And saved my life", would have been indistinguishable in pronunciation from "Anne saved my life". ^[10] The sonnet differs from all the others in the length of the lines. Its fairly simple language and syntax have led to suggestions that it was written much earlier than the other, more mature, sonnets.

Those lips that Love's own hand did make

Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'

To me that languish'd for her sake;

But when she saw my woeful state

Straight in her heart did mercy come,

Chiding that tongue that ever sweet

Was used in giving gentle doom,

And taught it thus anew to greet:

'I hate' she alter'd with an end,

That follow'd it as gentle day

Doth follow night, who like a fiend

From heaven to hell is flown away;

'I hate' from hate away she threw,

And saved my life, saying 'not you. '

Other literature

The following poem about Anne has also been ascribed to Shakespeare,^[11] but its language and style are not typical of his verse. It is widely attributed to Charles Dibdin (1748-1814) and may have been written for the Stratford upon Avon Shakespeare Festival of 1769:^[12]

But were it to my fancy given

To rate her charms, I'd call them heaven;

For though a mortal made of clay,

Angels must love Ann Hathaway;

She hath a way so to control,

To rapture the imprisoned soul,

And sweetest heaven on earth display,

That to be heaven Ann hath a way;

She hath a way,

Ann Hathaway,–

To be heaven's self Ann hath a way. Charles Dibdin ( 4 March 1745 ? &ndash 25 July 1814) British Musician, Dramatist, Novelist, Stratford-upon-Avon (ˌstrætfɚd əpɒn ˈɛɪvən is a Market town and Civil parish in south Warwickshire, England.

In literature after 1900

A trend in more recent literature on Hathaway is to imagine her as a sexually incontinent cradle-snatcher, or, alternatively, a frigid shrew. Significant age disparity in sexual relationships has been and remains a feature of couples in many Cultures and societies. The Taming of the Shrew is an early comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1590 and 1594

An adulterous Anne is imagined by James Joyce's character Stephen Dedalus, who makes a number of references to Hathaway. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce 's literary Alter ego, as well as the Protagonist of his first semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence ^[13] In Ulysses, he speculates that the gift of the infamous "second-best bed" was a punishment for her adultery,^[14] and earlier in the same novel, Dedalus analyses Shakespeare's marriage with a pun: "He chose badly? He was chosen, it seems to me. Adultery is the voluntary Sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not his or her Spouse, though in many places it is A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical If others have their will Ann hath a way. "^[15] Anne also appears in Hubert Osborne's The Shakespeare Play (c. Hubert Benjamin Osborne (1881 - 1958 was a Canadian-born Playwright and Screenwriter who worked in the USA 1911) and its sequel The Good Men Do (1917), which dramatises a meeting between the newly widowed Anne and her supposed old rival for William's love "Anne Whatley". Anne is depicted as shrewish in the first play, and as spiteful towards her former rival in the latter. ^[16] A frosty relationship is also portrayed in Edward Bond's play Bingo (1973), about Shakespeare's last days. Edward Bond (born 18 July 1934) is an English Playwright, Theatre director, Poet

The World's Wife, a collection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy, features a sonnet entitled Anne Hathaway, based on the passage from Shakespeare's will regarding his "second-best bed". Carol Ann Duffy (born December 23, 1955) is a British Poet, Playwright and Freelance Writer born in Duffy chooses the view that this would be their marriage bed, and so a memento of their love, not a slight. Anne remembers their lovemaking as a form of "romance and drama", unlike the "prose" written on the best bed used by guests, "I hold him in the casket of my widow's head/ as he held me upon that next best bed". The couple's sexual adventures on the bed are also described in Robert Nye's novel Mrs. Robert Nye (born 1939 is a British novelist poet and playwright Shakespeare: the Complete Works, which purports to be Anne's autobiographical reminiscences.

Through her long-running solo show Mrs Shakespeare, Will's first and last love (1989) American actress-writer Yvonne Hudson may have the most constant and evolving relationship with both the historical and dramatic Anne Hathaway. She depicts Anne and Will as maintaining a friendship despite the challenges inherent to their long separations and tragedies. Mining early and recent scholarship and the complete works, Hudson concurs that evidence of the couple's mutual respect is indeed evident in the plays and sonnets, along with support for the writer's infatuations and possibly adulterous relationships. Hudson also chooses the positive view of the bed bequest, sharing that "it may have been only here that I possessed William. " Mrs Shakespeare explores the realities of keeping house without a husband while applying some dramatic license. This allows Anne to have at least a country wife's understanding of her educated spouse's work as she quotes sonnets and soliloquies to convey her feelings.

The romantic comedy film Shakespeare in Love provides an example of the negative view, depicting the marriage as a cold and loveless bond that Shakespeare must escape to find love in London. Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 Romantic comedy / Drama Film. The film was directed by John Madden and co-written by playwright London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The play Shakespeare's Will by Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen is a one-woman piece that focuses on Anne Hathaway on the day of her husband's funeral. A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters Vern Thiessen (born ca 1964) is a Canadian Playwright. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thiessen studied at the University of Germaine Greer's book, Shakespeare's Wife, was published in 2007.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Delphiniums, hollyhocks and dahlias in the "cottage garden"

Anne Hathaway's childhood was spent in a house near Stratford in Warwickshire, England. Delphinium is a Genus of about 250 Species of annual biennial or perennial Flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, Dahlia is a Genus of bushy tuberous, Perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. The Cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design traditional materials dense plantings and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants on a smaller scale than Geography Warwickshire is bounded to the northwest by the West Midlands Metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Although it is often called a cottage, it is, in fact, a spacious twelve-roomed farmhouse, with several bedrooms, now set in extensive gardens. In modern usage a cottage is a dwelling typically in a rural or semi-rural location (although there are cottage-style dwellings in cities It was known as Newlands Farm in Shakespeare's day and had more than ninety acres of land attached to it. As in many houses of the period, it has multiple chimneys to spread the heat evenly throughout the house during winter. The largest chimney was used for cooking. It also has visible timber framing, a trademark of vernacular Tudor style architecture. Timber framing (Fachwerk or Half-timbering, is the method of creating framed structures of heavy timber jointed together with pegged Mortise and tenon joints The Tudor style in architecture is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period (1485&ndash1603 and even beyond for conservative college

After the death of Anne's father, the cottage was owned by Anne's brother Bartholomew, and was passed down the Hathaway family until 1846, when financial problems forced them to sell it. However, it was still occupied by them as tenants when it was acquired in 1892 by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which removed later additions and alterations. In 1969 the cottage was badly damaged in a fire, but was restored by the Trust. ^[17] It is now open to public visitors as a museum.

Sculpture Trail at Anne Hathaway's Cottage

History Play by Jane Lawrence	Titania and Bottom by Gemma Smith	King Lear by Eve Pomerantz	Falstaff, What is Honour by Niels Helvig Thorsen
Hamlet: What Wilt Thou Do For Her by Michele Firpo-Cappiello	Brutus by Isaac Graham

Shakespeare's family tree

References

Further Reading

• Greer, Germaine (2008). Shakespeare's Wife. New York: Harper. ISBN 0061537152.  

External links

• Anne Hathaway, wife of Shakespeare
• Hathway and Shakespeare's marriage license
• Some old Picture Postcards of Anne Hathaway's cottage in Shottery
• A TIME magazine review of Germaine Greer's new biography on Anne Hathaway
• Works by or about Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)