Chapter
4: Wedding, Wooing and Repenting.
Shakespeare
is often thought of as a great poet of love; however, upon close inspection,
Greenblatt uncovers a very grim outlook on love. Taking his readers on a
journey from Shakespeare’s surprisingly young nuptials, his quick exit to
London, and an inspection of his Last Will & Testament (and grave stone) –
Greenblatt dissects Shakespeare’s relation to his wife and how his plays
reflect this.
Married
in his teens to a woman eight year his senior, the wedding of William
Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway already raises eyebrows. The obvious explanation
came just six months later with the birth of Susanna. The subsequent birth of
twins Judth and Hamnet in 1585, just two years later suggests that William and
his wife had some fondness, or at least attraction to one another. However, not
long after the birth of his twins, William Shakespeare leaves for London and
becomes involved with a company of actors.
Going
on to discuss Shakespeare’s view on marriage, Greenblatt begins a critical
analysis of quote from plays and how they may reflect Shakespeare’s own
experiences. In As You Like It,
Rosalind takes on a very cynical view on marriage when testing Orlando,
speaking about how a woman changes when she become a wife. Merry Wives of Windsor also speaks about contempt growing with
knowing in a marriage; while in Much Ado
About Nothing, Beatrice sums up the normal sequence of events as a formula
of “wooding, wedding, and repenting” (2.1.60). While these comedies end with
Weddings, the ‘ever after’ does not look good if these speeches are anything to
go by.
Greenblatt
also doesn’t resist pointing out the obvious flaws in Shakespeare’s comedies,
that if looked at with a critical eye, are not flaws at all but commentary on
the fragility of love and attraction. Let’s not forget that while the love
between Lysander and Hermia is restored at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius falls in love with Helena due
to a magical flower. While in Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo and Jessica jest
about her departure from her father’s house with his fortune, but dark
undertone comes through when Jessica mentions that Lorenzo wooed her and won
her, “Stealing her soul with many vows of faith, and ne’er a true one.”
(5.1.18-19) From these views, love looks like a false idea that exists upon the
basis of lies and magic potions.
Moving
on to Shakespeare later life to further understand the man’s relationship with
his wife, Greenblatt scrutinizes the man’s Last Will & Testament. From
Greenblatt’s study, it appears that the Anne was left out entirely from the
first draft of the Will, only later added in as an afterthought, being left
William Shakespeare’s ‘second best bed’. This tid-bit from his Will is often
brought up to prove that William did care about his wife, he left her a bed
after all, and goodness knows those are expensive. Greenblatt notes, however,
that all of Shakespeare’s goods and funds are left to his children, and to
close friends – save that second best bed. He also claims that the ‘curse’ that
Shakespeare penned for his gravestone was also written as instructions that his
wife not be placed within his coffin with him.
Chapter
four of Will in the World does not paint a happy view of love and marriage
through the words of William Shakespeare. When a man leaves his wife and young
children to live in a city that would take a few days to travel to at the time,
there may be a significant reason for that. This chapter lead me to rethink
every Shakespeare quote that I’ve seen about love; perhaps we should pay closer
attention to the context and less to the words by themselves. Out of context,
the man is exceedingly romantic, but within the context of his plays he is
blunt and realistic.
