So in fact, Anne Hathaway - was she 26, 27? anyhow - she was absolutely the right age for marriage according to her society. So, that was why a lot of marriages took place at that period in people’s lives. The reason for that is because that was the approximate age that a man would finish an apprenticeship, and therefore have the means to gain an income and support a family. The average age of marriage in Tudor England was not what people think from Romeo and Juliet and was, in fact, about 26 or 27. Back over to Liz to enlighten us.ĭOLLIMORE: To our eyes, it seems that she was surprisingly old, but in fact, in Tudor society, it was him that was surprisingly young.
Well, yes it was, but not for the reasons that one would first think. Now, lots have been made of these two facts, and looking back with a modern eye, it does seem pretty unusual, but was it really? And, of course, Anne was pregnant with their first child when they got married. William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and when she was 26 or 27, and they remained married for the rest of his life. REID: Well, I’m a romantic too, but before we get carried away, let’s look at some of the facts. I hope he did, ‘cause that’s nice, and I’m slightly romantic. So, I’m afraid we don’t honestly know whether he loved his wife or not. Perhaps he had all his play scripts hidden in the mattress and that’s why he left it to her, but I doubt that. So, that might have been a romantic gesture for all one knows. The other common thing that people say is that he only left her the ‘ second best bed’, but of course, the second best bed was, in most households, the marital bed. So, again, I don’t think that says very much about whether he loved her or not. And many people I’m sure listening to this will know or have personal experience with very successful long distance relationships that don’t remotely mean the couple don’t love each other and may mean, in fact, that they’re able to continue loving each other in a way in which, had they spent every day together, they wouldn’t have done. I mean, the things which people say about that - that, you know, he spent a lot of his time working in London - but, the counterargument to that would be, he spent a lot of time working in London so that they had money to live a better life. There’s no evidence that he didn’t like her. So, to ask a question like that at a gap of some 400 years when we have no personal documentation of his feelings about anything, it leaves us with very, very little to go on. It would be a ‘On a good day’, or, you know, ‘When we go on holiday’, or, you know, ‘When I have time’, or any of those things. For many of us, the answer wouldn’t be a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. And even if you ask that question yourself - ‘Do you love your husband/wife/boyfriend?’ - those are big questions that are complicated and difficult to answer. There’s nothing that’s personal that Shakespeare left to tell us those important questions. The first person I spoke to about this one was Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, who is the Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT and Liz gave me a really good summary of the arguments people have for and against Shakespeare loving his wife, and the problem we have with answering such a question at a distance of 400 years.ĭOLLIMORE: I think the honest answer is that we can’t tell in this distance of time, to be honest. I’m Jennifer Reid, and today I’m asking the question, “Did Shakespeare love his wife?” REID: Hello, and welcome to the second episode of “Let’s Talk Shakespeare”, a podcast brought to you from Stratford-upon-Avon by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT - Professor Sir Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the SBT - Dr Tara Hamling, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern history at Birmingham University - Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute - Ben Crystal, actor, writer and producer This week's guests (in order of appearance) are: Image: Courtship of William Shakespeare by D. Prices, booking, opening times and more to help you get organised