Demi Moore’s marriage to Ashton Kutcher has gone some way toward legitimising the older woman-younger man liaison. But long before Hollywood celebrities defied conjugal norms, cougars everywhere could claim Ann Hathaway as their trail-blazer.
At 26, Ann (Germaine Greer spells her name throughout minus the customary ‘e’), daughter of a Stratford farmer, married 18-year-old William Shakespeare. Patriarchal biographers of the playwright have sought to claim that the union was entrapment — Ann became pregnant before the wedding, as was quite common in Tudor times and that Will’s regard for his wife swiftly waned. Greer deftly dispatches misogynistic interpretations both of Ann’s character and her marriage. She repeatedly underscores the lack of evidence for many writers’ assumptions — even for her own suggested ‘heresy’ that it was venereal disease, as much as Will’s career, that estranged him from his spotless wife for most of their relationship.
Supplementing the scant facts with broader social history, biographical hypothesis and literary sleuthing, Greer explores the many possibilities of Ann’s life. In her pursuit of truth rather than bardolatry, she easily skewers the ‘frantic fantasising’ of critics who infer from spousal discord in Shakespeare’s plays that he must have found his own union unsatisfying.
There were many ways young William could have evaded marriage if Ann’s pregnancy were the sole inducement, yet he chose not to avail himself of them. Ann raised three children mostly by herself, working to feed the family while her husband gained fame and favour in London.
Despite the myriad possibilities, Shakespeare’s wife will always remain a mystery, as Greer herself concedes. The playwright’s comment on the nature of theatre could apply equally to his spouse: ‘The best in this kind are but shadows’.
Shakespeare’s Wife
