Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

"Wooing, Wedding and Repenting" This chapter begins with a brief description of the circumstances of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Hathaway is likely a Protestant, relatively well off, and in her late twenties. Shakespeare, on the other hand, is likely Catholic, not well off and in his late teens. The observation is made that there seems to be at least an initial sexual and romantic connection, not to mention urgency, between the two of them, since there is clear evidence that Anne was pregnant at the time of their marriage. This urgency, the author suggests, is hinted at in the urgency of the two young lovers in Romeo and Juliet. On the other side of the coin, the author suggests, is the commentary in Henry VI that "...wedlock forced [is] a hell, an age of discord and continual strife." The author proposes...