1585. "Upon his leaving school," says Mr. Rowe, "he seems to have given entirely into that way of living which his father proposed to him; and in order to settle in the world in a family manner, he thought fit to marry, while he was yet very young." Our poet, like many other persons at that period, entered into the matrimonial state when he was little more than eighteen years old; but that this measure was proposed to him by his father, we have no evidence whatsoever, nor is it very probable. His writings, as well as the testimony of his contemporaries, afford abundant proofs of the warmth, the tenderness, and the sensibility of his disposition; and this, much more than any recommendation of his father, was the occasion of his wishing, at an early period of life, to participate in "the sweet silent hours of marriage joys;" for I believe it will be found invariably true (and I wish to impress this truth on the minds of my fair countrywomen), that the most beautiful part of the creation have ever experienced the most ardent attachments in the bosoms of men whose manners were elegant, and divinity or physick. Whenever as large a number of instances of his ecclesiastical or medicinal knowledge shall be produced, what has now been stated will certainly not be entitled to any weight. MALOne. A large addition might be made to this list of the instances in which legal language has been used in Shakspeare. But as this notion, after it had been suggested by Mr. Malone, originally in a note appended to his Essay on the Chronological Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Art. Hamlet, was adopted both by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Ritson, these gentlemen have called the attention of the reader to many passages of this description in the course of their comments. BOSWELL. whose understandings and taste were vigorous and refined: 66 in the gentlest 3 hearts "Imperious love hath highest set his throne 4." Anne Hathaway, whom our poet married, probably in June or July, 1582, was then in her twenty-sixth year, that is, seven years and a half older than her husband a disproportion of age, which seldom fails, at a subsequent period of life, to be productive of unhappiness, and which, perhaps, about thirteen years afterwards, gave rise to a part of the following beautiful verses on the subject of marriage; which no man who ever felt the passion of love, can read without emotion: "Ah, me! for aught that I could ever read, "The course of true love never did run smooth; "Or else misgraffed in respect of years, "The jaws of darkness do devour it up. "So quick bright things come to confusion 5." Perhaps, indeed, the same feeling suggested the 3 Gentle was used by Spenser and his contemporaries with the sense of generosus, bene moratus. 4 To the truth of this sentiment our author himself bears testimony in his Two Gentlemen of Verona : following judicious precept, at a still later period, when our poet was in his forty-third year: "Duke. What years, i' faith ?¦ "Viola. About your years, my lord. "Duke. Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take "An elder than herself: so wears she to him; "So sways she level in her husband's heart; "For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, "More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, "Then let thy love be younger than thyself, "Or thy affection cannot hold the bent "." From this inequality of years, I have sometimes fancied that the object of our poet's choice was a widow'. They were not married at Stratford, no as in the sweetest buds "The eating canker dwells, so eating love s A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. I. 7 This notion was first suggested to me by finding that Mr. William Wilson was married to Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, January 17, 1579-80; and I suspected that he died between that time and 1582. But, on a further examination, I found that Mr. William Wilson, who was an alderman of Stratford, lived to the year 1605. She could not, therefore, have married Shakspeare. Besides, as I have observed above, it is much more probable that our poet's wife was of Luddington. The late Mr. Joseph Greene, vicar of Welford, near Stratford, imagined that our poet's wife was of Shottery; induced, probably, by finding, in the Stratford register, the names of Richard Hathaway, otherwise Gardiner, of Shottery, and his descendants, frequently occur; and he supposed that a remarkable house in Shottery, which in his time was the property of two ladies of the name of Tyler, and had formerly belonged to an old Mr. VOL. II. I entry of their marriage appearing in the register of that parish; nor have I been able to ascertain the day Quiney, might have descended from Thomas Quiney, on whose marriage, with the poet's second daughter, he might have settled this house, which, it was suggested, he might have acquired as a part of his wife's portion. But it is clear, from Shakspeare's will, that he had not paid his second daughter's portion, at the time of his death, though he had covenanted to give her 100l. which, accordingly, he does, in his will; and he makes no mention of a house in Shottery. Mr. Bartholomew Hathaway, a substantial yeoman, who was the possessor of the Shottery estate, and who, I believe, was the son of Mr. Richard Hathaway, born before the commencement of the register, died at a good old age, in 1624. From his will, which was made December 16, 1621, and proved at Stratford, December 6, 1624, I find that he had three sons; John, Richard, and Edmond. To Richard he bequeaths twenty shillings; to Edmond, his third son, 120l. to be paid in seven years after his decease; and to his eldest son, John, his messuage, in Shottery, with the appurtenances, and two yard lands and a half [about seventy-five acres], lying in the fields of Shottery and Old Stratford; limiting the said lands to him and the heirs of his body, remainder to his son Edmond, remainder to Richard. To each of the children of his son John, viz. Alice, Richard, Anne, and Ursula, one of his best ewes. To his own daughter, Anne, the now wife of Richard Edwards, the sum of thirty shillings; and to each of her seven [q. six] children, Avery, Bartholomew, Alice, Thomas, Richard, and Ursula, 6s. viiid. His executor is his son John; and Mr. John Hall, of Stratford, and Stephen Burman, of Shottery, his overseers; to each of whom he leaves 2s. vid. Avery Edwards, the person above-mentioned, lived, in the year 1622, at Luddington, as appears from the collector's subsidy book, 19 Jac. in the chamber of Stratford. Richard Hathaway, a baker, who was elected an alderman of Stratford, April 18, 1623, and died there in October, 1636, was probably the second son of the above-named Bartholomew. I do not believe that there was any other person of the name of Hathaway, who had an estate at Shottery; and Bartholomew's or place of their union, though I have searched the registers of several of the neighbouring parishes for that purpose. The tradition, however, concerning the surname of his wife, is confirmed by the will of Lady Barnard, our poet's grand-daughter, which I discovered a few years ago; for she gives several legacies to the children of her kinsman, Mr. Thomas Hathaway, formerly of Stratford; and still more de daughter, Anne, we see, was married to Richard Edwards. The wife of our poet might, indeed, have been Bartholomew Hathaway's sister; but, as she was yet living when his will was made, and no mention is made of her in it, nor any memorial given to her, I think it improbable that she should have been his sister. I may add, in confirmation of what I have suggested (that our poet's wife was not of Shottery), that Susanna, the daughter of Thomas Hathaway (Shakspeare's great nephew, as I believe), who was baptized at Stratford, June 11, 1648, and to whom, without doubt, Mrs. Susanna Hall was godmother, is described, in the parish register, as the daughter of Thomas Hathaway, without any addition; as are William, son to the same Thomas Hathaway, baptized April 19, 1640; Rose, his daughter, baptized November 6, 1642; and Elizabeth, another daughter, baptized January 10, 1646-7. Whereas, we find that Edmond, "son to John Hathaway, of Shottery," baptized November 23, 1628, and Elizabeth, daughter of the same John Hathaway, of Shottery, baptized January 22, 1625-6. This distinction is constantly preserved in the register. I mention these circumstances, as they show that the Hathaways, who were related to our poet's daughters, were not of Shottery. Mrs. Judith Quiney was, without doubt, sponsor for Judith, another daughter of the same Thomas Hathaway; and our poet's grand-daughter, Lady Barnard, bequeaths legacies to his several children above-named; Susanna, Judith, Rose, and Elizabeth; which last was certainly her own godchild. She calls him "her kinsman Thomas Hathaway, late of Stratford upon Avon." |