nown. The monument
over his grave states that at his death on April 23, 1616, he was
"AEtatis 53," which would seem to indicate that he must have been born at
least as early as April 22; and, since in those days baptism usually
took place within a very few days of birth, there is no reason for
pushing the date farther back.

[Page Heading: Marriage]

Of the education of the poet we have no record. Stratford had a free
grammar school, to which such a boy as the bailiff's son would be sure
to be sent; and the inference that William Shakespeare was a pupil there
and studied the usual Latin authors is entirely reasonable. About 1577
his father began to get into financial difficulties, and it is reported
that about this time the boy was withdrawn from school to help in his
father's business. We know nothing certainly, however, until we learn
from the registry of the Bishop of Worcester that on November 28, 1582,
two husbandmen of Stratford gave bonds "to defend and save harmless" the
bishop and his officers for licensing the marriage of William
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. Of the actual marriage there is no
record. Anne is probably to be identified with Agnes or Anne, the
daughter of Richard Hathaway of the neighboring hamlet of Shottery, who
had died in the previous July, and had owned the house of which a part
still survives and is shown to visitors as "Anne Hathaway's cottage."
The date on Anne's tombstone indicates that she was eight years older
than the poet.

A comparison of the bond just mentioned with other documents of the kind
indicates it to be exceptional in the absence of any mention of consent
by the bridegroom's parents, a circumstance rendered still more
remarkable by the fact that he was a minor. The bondsmen were from
Shottery, and this, along with the considerations already advanced, has
naturally led to the inference that the marriage was hurried by the
bride's friends, and to the finding of a motive for their haste in the
birth within six months of "Susanna, daughter to William Shakespere,"
who was baptized on May 26, 1583.

[Page Heading: "The only Shake-scene"]

The record of the baptism of Shakespeare's only other children, the
twins Hamnet and Judith, in February, 1585, practically exhausts the
documentary evidence concerning the poet in Stratford until 1596. It is
conjectured, but not known, that about 1586 he found his way to London
and soon became connected with the theater, according to o