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capri0mniI was looking in the Shakespeare anthology I had from college for that bit about Susanna Shakespeare being "witty above her sex," and couldn't find it. But I knew I'd read it somewhere. So I looked online.
Turns out, it was from her epitaph (Note -- she married Doctor John Hall in 1607 -- what's the 400th wedding anniversary? ;-):
Witty above her sexe, but that's not all:
Wise to Salvation was good Mistress Hall.
Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this
Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse.
Found out a bunch of stuff about her at this About.com website (it has popups): Shakespeare's children: Susanna, Judith and Hamnet.
Susanna sued a man for libel in 1613, and won. Shakespeare made Susanna and John Hall executors of his estate, and after his death in 1616, they returned to his home in Stratford to help run the estate. Susanna had one daughter, Elizabeth, and she and John made sure she was well educated. Dr. John Hall kept meticulous records, and came up with a successful treatment for scurvy, using local plants rich in vitamin C, 100 years before James Lind, who found that lemon juice worked.
It was also at that site that I was reminded that Judith, just two years her junior, had a much different fate. She married an abusive Vintner named Thomas Quiney (after his marriage, Quiney was convicted of adultery [the woman he got pregnant and the baby both died shortly after childbirth]), and Shakespeare changed his will to keep Quiney's hands off his money, and died only a few weeks later (once, in Shakespeare class, in college, I learned of the rumor that he died so quickly because Quiney had poisoned him... But I think that's just as colorful a story as Shakespeare leaving Stratford because he was caught poaching).
So here's what's got me wondering: the two daughters were only two years apart in age, and grew up in the same family. Why would Susanna gravitate toward a doctor who obviously valued intelligence and eduation in women, and Judith marry such an aparant cad? It seems like Judith "settled" -- why? I'm thinking about the mysterious thing that killed Hamnet at age 11 (I have the vague memory of reading speculations about disease and/or malnutition), and wondering if the same thing struck Judith, that she survived, but with mental impairments, or something...
But anyway. Yes. Whenever it was that I first read "Witty above her sex," I imediately just translated that to mean: "She had a brain, she knew she had a brain, and wasn't afraid to use it while there were men in the room." And it's that trait that makes me think she'd be a good companion for the Doctor. Besides, I think the last historical companion was Jamie. And that's far too long ago...
Turns out, it was from her epitaph (Note -- she married Doctor John Hall in 1607 -- what's the 400th wedding anniversary? ;-):
Witty above her sexe, but that's not all:
Wise to Salvation was good Mistress Hall.
Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this
Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse.
Found out a bunch of stuff about her at this About.com website (it has popups): Shakespeare's children: Susanna, Judith and Hamnet.
Susanna sued a man for libel in 1613, and won. Shakespeare made Susanna and John Hall executors of his estate, and after his death in 1616, they returned to his home in Stratford to help run the estate. Susanna had one daughter, Elizabeth, and she and John made sure she was well educated. Dr. John Hall kept meticulous records, and came up with a successful treatment for scurvy, using local plants rich in vitamin C, 100 years before James Lind, who found that lemon juice worked.
It was also at that site that I was reminded that Judith, just two years her junior, had a much different fate. She married an abusive Vintner named Thomas Quiney (after his marriage, Quiney was convicted of adultery [the woman he got pregnant and the baby both died shortly after childbirth]), and Shakespeare changed his will to keep Quiney's hands off his money, and died only a few weeks later (once, in Shakespeare class, in college, I learned of the rumor that he died so quickly because Quiney had poisoned him... But I think that's just as colorful a story as Shakespeare leaving Stratford because he was caught poaching).
So here's what's got me wondering: the two daughters were only two years apart in age, and grew up in the same family. Why would Susanna gravitate toward a doctor who obviously valued intelligence and eduation in women, and Judith marry such an aparant cad? It seems like Judith "settled" -- why? I'm thinking about the mysterious thing that killed Hamnet at age 11 (I have the vague memory of reading speculations about disease and/or malnutition), and wondering if the same thing struck Judith, that she survived, but with mental impairments, or something...
But anyway. Yes. Whenever it was that I first read "Witty above her sex," I imediately just translated that to mean: "She had a brain, she knew she had a brain, and wasn't afraid to use it while there were men in the room." And it's that trait that makes me think she'd be a good companion for the Doctor. Besides, I think the last historical companion was Jamie. And that's far too long ago...
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Date: 2007-02-02 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 07:27 pm (UTC)Then again, I'm an only child, so what do I know about crazy sisters?
(On the other hand, losing her twin brother at such a young age, so suddenly, must have had some impact on how she turned out, even if that impact never shows up in actual scars visible to others. Twins are so famously, freakishly, close, after all).
As to whether she was mentally disturbed, it could be argued that habitual clinging to assholes of men is a form of mental disturbance. ;-p