Sippers. However, they found themselves overmatched even by them, and the party from Stratford. getting dreadfully intoxicated, gave up the contest, and set out for home. On the road, at the distance of half a mile from the village, Will became so knocked up that he was obliged to spend the night under a crab-tree, known afterwards as Shakespeare's Tree. On being invited next morning by some of his boon-companions to return to Bidford, with the view of renewing the contest, Shakespeare refused. Says he, I have drunk enough with "Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford." These lines, which are quite familiar to the countrypeople, are uniformly ascribed to Shakespeare. They indicate that the Bidford Sippers were composed of representatives from all these villages; and it is asserted that the various appellations were characteristic of the several places, and that some of them still are so. Pebworth was noted for the musical gifts of its inhabitants; Marston, for its country-dances; Hillborough, a lonely place, is said to have been haunted by ghosts and fairies; hungry, as an epithet applied to Grafton, may refer to the poverty of its soil; dudging, means sulky, stubborn, in dudgeon, and was probably a characteristic of the Exhall villagers; in Papist Wicksford, the people were tenants of the Throckmorton family, and were chiefly Papists; beggarly, may signify mean-a point of character at Broom; Bidford, the head-quarters of the Topers and Sippers, is worthily named drunken. Hitherto, in narrating the events of Shakespeare's life, we have been guided solely by the light of uncertain tradition. We now come to his marriage, the next fact in his history after his baptism which is established on indubitable evidence. This event took place in his nineteenth year. It is not known in what church the ceremony was performed, as no registration of the marriage has been found. That it must have been posterior to 28th November 1582, is evident from the date of the preliminary marriage-bond. The object of this bond, procured from the Bishop of Worcester at the abovementioned date, was for licensing William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway to be married on a single proclamation of the banns of matrimony. Collier says, "It is not to be concealed or denied that the whole proceeding seems to indicate haste and secrecy." This opinion is probably well founded. Anne Hathaway was at this time at the age of twenty-six, and therefore Shakespeare's senior by seven or eight years. Tradition describes her as eminently beautiful, but for this there is no certainty. She is designated in the marriage-bond as of Stratford, although it is likely she did not belong to the town, but came from Shottery, which is within the parish. The cottage is still in existence which tradition points to as her home. The general opinion is, that Shakespeare's marriage was not a happy one, although this conclusion has been strenuously denied. One of the points on which the opinion has been grounded, is the circumstance that no notice is taken of his wife by Shakespeare in his Will, except the following:-"Item, I gyve unto my wief my second best bed, with the furniture," and even this is an interlineation. The meagreness. of this bequest is brought out by the next sentence but one in the Will: "All the rest of my goodes, chattel, leases, plate, jewels, and household stuffe whatsoever, . I gyve, devise, and bequeathe to my sonne-in-lawe, John Hall, gent., and my daughter Susanna, his wief, whom I ordaine and make executors of this my last will and testament." Mr. Knight points out that Shakespeare's widow would be provided for by the clear and undeniable operation of the English law, and suggests that the best bed was probably an heirloom. Allowing that such was the case, the omission of Anne Hathaway's name in regard to all save the second best bed, with the furniture, in a Will full of bequests of a complimentary kind-such as money to purchase rings-indicates that somehow she had lost, in later life at least, the respect of her husband. The absence of any evidence that she ever resided with her husband during his protracted stays in London, is to the same effect. But, on the other hand, a great deal too much stress has been laid on the disparity between their ages; and some have supposed that the passage in "Twelfth Night," where the Duke says to Viola— "Let still the woman take An elder than herself: so wears she to him; ACT ii., Scene 4. refers to Shakespeare's own experience. We think, however, that this disparity could not have been the |