Anne Shakespeare

[BobBradshaw]

Anne Shakespeare

  
   Since Anne cannot write she insists I do.
   I am only writing what she says.
   One does not blame
 
   a weather vane when a gale
   blows in.  So, please,
   do not blame thy sister for thy wife's anger.

Will, Anne cannot understand
   why you are not home
   for a second summer in a row.
        
   She says, “You galloped out of Stratford
   as if you had the ugliest girl
   in Warwickshire pregnant.
 
   'Tis true you no longer kissed me
   as if we had just eloped.
   If that be reason enough

   to abandon family, 
   'twould not be a husband
   left in Stratford.

    Judith, Hamnet and Susanna
    cannot embrace the money
    you send back, or endear themselves

    to the jangling of a few coins
    in lieu of a bedtime story.
    Nay, the cut purses

    and whores of London
    pull more at your heartstrings
    than thy own family.

    Now in this plaguey year
    thou are not to be seen
    —again.

    Ah, poor Will.  Far from home 
    is thy heart orphaned?
    Mayhap one day thou will return,

    a gentleman with a coat of arms
    —but 'twill be with the guilty face
    of a horse who has thrown its rider.

    Spend the plaguey summer 
    with thy dear earl of Southampton,
    addling thy brain with champagne.

    'Tis fine here without you.  
    Do not write again of how much
    thou miss thy children and me….

    And 'Gods wounds don’t close
    thy letters with Love, Will.
    How can you expect me 

    to have faith in words?   
    If an absent father
    could be charged with treason,

    and I were Queen,
    thy head would gaze down
    from a bridge's pike."

[Michael (MV)]

Hi Bob,

Take a read of this with the 1st stanza as the 3rd.



Michael (MV)

Anne Shakespeare

   Will, Anne cannot understand
   why you are not home
   for a second summer in a row.

   Since she cannot write she insists I do.
   I am only writing what she says.
   One does not blame
 
   a weather vane when a gale
   blows in.  So, please,
   do not blame thy sister for thy wife's anger.
        
   She says, “You galloped out of Stratford
   as if you had the ugliest girl
   in Warwickshire pregnant.
 
   'Tis true you no longer kissed me
   as if we had just eloped.
   If that be reason enough

   to abandon family, 
   'twould not be a husband
   left in Stratford.

    Judith, Hamnet and Susanna
    cannot embrace the money
    you send back, or endear themselves

    to the jangling of a few coins
    in lieu of a bedtime story.
    Nay, the cut purses

    and whores of London
    pull more at your heartstrings
    than thy own family.

    Now in this plaguey year
    thou are not to be seen
    —again.

    Ah, poor Will.  Far from home 
    is thy heart orphaned?
    Mayhap one day thou will return,

    a gentleman with a coat of arms
    —but 'twill be with the guilty face
    of a horse who has thrown its rider.

    Spend the plaguey summer 
    with thy dear earl of Southampton,
    addling thy brain with champagne.

    'Tis fine here without you.  
    Do not write again of how much
    thou miss thy children and me….

    And 'Gods wounds don’t close
    thy letters with Love, Will.
    How can you expect me 

    to have faith in words?   
    If an absent father
    could be charged with treason,

    and I were Queen,
    thy head would gaze down
    from a bridge's pike."

[BobBradshaw]

Thanks, Michael. I have made the change.