NARRATIVE TWO ON SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE-FROM MY FATHER's COLLECTION: MACBETH-1902

CHILDHOOD & YOUTH

In the meantime five children-three boys & two girls younger than William-began to require education.The boys "were entitled to free tuition at the Grammar School of Stratford," where they were taught the rudiments of Lain,grammar and literature,and to write in old English characters, as was the custom in provincial schools.In later life William Shakespeare acquired some knowledge of the French language( of which he made use in the Play of Henry V ). 

His time at school was short,as his father's fortunes steadily declined,and at the age of thirteen he was obliged to apply himself to the trade of a butcher,which was then the only means by which his father earned his living.

HIS MARRIAGE

At a short distance from Stratford stands a thatched cottage,still known by the name of Anne Hathaway's Cottage,and inhabited by descendants of the Hathaways until 1838.It is said to be only a part of the homestead where Anne's father ,Richard Hathaway,died in fairly prosperous circumstances,leaving a farm which had belonged to his family for generations to be carried on by his widow and eldest son.Each daughter was to receive for her marriage a very  modest sum.

Anne Hathaway became the wife of William Shakespeare when he was little more than eighteen and a half years old,she having attained the more mature age of twenty -six.History says little of their early married life,and that little does not point to happiness.Three children were born to them,two daughters and a son.

( Next-Early Life at Stratford)