For Mr. and Mrs. W.S.
“Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests:
Professor says text shows Hathaway lived with playwright in London, upending the established idea
of an unhappy marriage”
—The Guardian
Let me not, on the marriage of two minds,
Impose prescriptiveness: that state is more
Than one short vow that regulates and binds;
Both should be greater than they were before.
Oh yes! It is a never-ceasing quest
To welcome differences without despairing,
To choose such ways as suit each other best,
And honor intimacies not for sharing.
Now Anne and Will, so glibly thought estranged,
Prove to have lived as one throughout. Our view
Of how their marriage worked must thus be changed;
Or we could own that no one knows or knew
Besides themselves. If this be falsely said,
Will never writ, nor no one ever wed.
Surfyted
“‘A surfyte of cheese doth bringe payne’: Leeds University transcribes early book on cheese:
First known such ‘pamflyt’ in English has contemporary resonance, with advice on food intolerances
and eating cheese after a meal”
—The Guardian
A surfyte of cheese doth bringe payne,
Thou hast heard it agayne and agayne,
Bee it cheddar or suche
As we gayne of ye Dutche
Or ye devilysshe blue of ye Dane.
If thou wouldst repose at thine ease,
Bee mindful, O lector, of these:
Ye plague and ye poxe
And ye cholericke oxe,
But chiefely ye surfyte of cheese!