Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died in 1616 on the same day in April as his birth.

He married Anne Hathaway in November of 1582. He was 18 and she was 26 and pregnant with their first child (Suzanna).  The average age of marriage for a woman was 26. William, being 18, was considered a minor and had to have Anne's father's consent to marry. Suzanna was born six months after the wedding. Three years later Anne gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Anne and William remained married  until his death.

His will of March 25, 1616, a month before he died, states that he left her the second-best bed (with its bedding and curtains).  This was not a slight. The second-best bed was the marriage bed, the best bed being reserved for guests. 

Here is Carol Anne Duffy's poem,"Anne Hathaway."

ANNE HATHAWAY

'Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed...'

        (from Shakespeare's will)

The bed we loved in was a spinning word

of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas

where he would dive for pearls. My lover's words

were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses

on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme

to his, now echo, assonance; his touch

a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.

Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed

a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance

and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.

In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,

dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -

I hold him in the casket of my widow's head

as he held me upon that next best bed.

        by Carol Anne Duffy

        from The World's Wife (1999)

Carol Anne Duffy is former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.

MY NEW BOOK

My new book, Sunshine Has Its Limits is here! 

This collection of poems tells the story of a couple's journey, from the exhilaration of first attraction, through marriage and its daily rituals, to the final disenchantment. In the end, one partner accepts the other's estrangement and begins to triumph in self-awareness in this new world. 

Here are two of the poems from my book:

UNRULY ACCRUALS

The same month as the canister

vacuum cleaner dies, she claims

the refrigerator needs replacing.

His comeback is a mischievous grin

with "Does this marriage merit

a second generation of appliances?"

Her relaxed laugh and smile make plain

her disbelief that the usefulness of their

devices is what holds the two together.

Throughout those unruly accruals,

she can count on what persists,

their uncontrived delight in each other,

like some self-evident truth

that becomes its own affirmation.

        Lenny Lianne

        from Sunshine Has Its Limits (Kelsey Books, 2023)

NEITHER PERFECT NOR CONSTANT

Outside her window, a winter wind

batters bushes and leafless branches

of the silver oaks. In the sky,

the Little Dipper, that looked level

in autumn, appears on its side

as though knocked over, its contents gone.

                Who cares what's been lost,

                what's never our to keep?

she asks of no one

but the wordless universe

which, itself, is neither perfect

nor constant.                Like snow,

which overnight conceals

the hardened ground. Her world

it seems is changing clothes

and character. Each incidental

flake drops in the down-

draft, full of flight and fall,

while a chilly quietness grips the air,

like a familiar after shave. 

        Lenny Lianne

        from Sunshine Has Its Limits (Kelsay Books, 2023)

My book is available at

Kelsaybooks.com

    and

on Amazon.