They cluster rounde thie lippes, and thyne
Distill theire sweetes improv'd on myne.
Anna Hatheway.
CHAPTER IV.
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.