8-4Children

//Answer prepared by Annelise G. //
 Shakespeare’s love’s of his live 37. Shakespeare was very complicated. Many people don’t know much about him. One thing we do know about him is that he was an inspiring writer and his words danced around our heads creating beautiful pictures. Many people may not know that he had a wife and children. His wife is named Anne Hathaway. He originally had three children but then one of them died. They had Susanna, the oldest, and Judith and Hamnet the twins. Shakespeare was deeply impacted by the birth of his twins, from the book __William Shakespeare__ by Karl Elize he says, “The association of ideas roused in his mind by this event, occupied his thoughts so variously and continuously that he returns to the subject in “Twelfth Night.” In “the Comedy of Errors,” we have two pairs of twins.” (332) He must have been very excited to have twins and also be a proud father. His excitement of having twins was lost because Hamnet passed away when he was a young boy.

Susanna was born only six months after Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway’s wedding. Anne was pregnant with her when they were getting married. Susanna made a name for her and made people notice who she was and who she was a daughter to when this happened, “ May 5th Susanna was named as a recusant for not attending an Easter Day Church service.” This was said on the webpage “Shakespeare’s Children,” from the website Shakespeare’s Children //www.Shakespeare’schildren.com. This means that her family didn’t take her to church on Easter Sunday and that maybe the family refused to take her? It was not a good start in Susanna’s life. During Easter was the first time anyone really had heard of her. At the age of 24 she married to Dr. John Hall. That marriage was superior because he was a leading citizen and he was a doctor in the town of Stratford. She then had a baby girl eight months after their wedding. She died in 1649. // Hamnet was the twin to Judith. From the webpage “Shakespeare’s Children,” which is from the website Shakespeare’s Children, Www. Shakespeare’schildren.com explain Hamnet a bit. They say that, “Little is known about the life of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet and there are no records that show that Hamnet Shakespeare ever attended a school although it was customary for a boy from Hamnet's background to have had an education.” Hamnet died of Black Plague at the age of eleven. They buried him on August 11, 1596 in Stratford. Judith was the other twin she was lucky enough to not be affected by the deadly disease. She was a healthy little girl. She grew up with her mother in Stratford and lived a high quality life. She was married two times; there were many scandals that went on with her marriages. The first time she was married to Richard Quiney. Anne and William were at first feeling alright with this marriage until they knew about his declining health and made her re-marry. Then she re-married to Thomas Quiney. There was much scandal with him because he supposedly got another woman pregnant before marrying Judith! Then that marriage ended and she did not re-marry anyone else. Thomas and Richard Quiney are related! They are brothers. Shakespeare and the Quiney family were very close in social status and as friends. Shakespeare betrothed Judith to marry them because they were so close. Who knew they would be so much trouble!

Shakespeare seemed to not have a very good relationship with hisfamily. He didn’t see them very much and he wasn’t very involved in their lives. He more or less approved marriages, gave money, and gave them houses and goods. He cared about his family but he made Anne take care of the children the whole time and cared about his work a lot more than his family. He put his work before his family multiple times. When he was dying he did give a large sum of his items and money to Susanna. It shows that maybe he had a greater bond with Susanna but not as much with Judith.

Works Cited:
Elize, Karl. //William Shakespeare//. United States: G. Bell and Sons, 1888. Kathman, Dave. "Shakespeare's Will Part 10 of Critically Examining Oxfords Clams." // Shakespeare Authorship Home Page //. April 23, 1996. Seven Wonders. 15 Apr 2009.