Shakespeare's wife was named Anne Hathaway.

Famous Figures

T he actress Anne Hathaway is well known for starring in hit films such as Les Misérables, The Princess Diaries, and The Devil Wears Prada, but what's less well known is that she was named after the wife of famed playwright William Shakespeare. That Anne Hathaway was born in 1556, and grew up on a large farm in the village of Shottery, England, about a mile and a half away from Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married in 1582, after which Anne moved with William into the Shakespeare family home in Stratford.

Anne and William had three children: Susanna, born in 1583, and twins Judith and Hamnet, born in 1585. William spent much of his time away from his family working as a playwright in London, and it's unknown whether he was at Anne's side after the couple suffered a tragic loss when their son Hamnet died at the age of 11. In fact, little is known about the nature of Anne and William's marriage. One of the few details historians have is that upon the Bard's death, he left his wife his "second-best bed" in his will. In England at that time, the best bed was typically reserved for guests, while the second-best bed was a couple's marital bed, meaning William might have been giving Anne a sentimental gift to acknowledge the life they shared together. When Anne Shakespeare died in 1623, she was buried next to her husband in Stratford.

Thank you for supporting our advertisers!

By the Numbers

Times the word "love" appears in Shakespeare's plays

2,191

Lines in the Folger Shakespeare edition of Hamlet, Shakespeare's longest play

4,167

Oscars won by the 1961 film West Side Story, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

Common English words that Shakespeare provided the first recorded use of

1,700

Did you know?

Most of Uranus' moons are named after Shakespeare characters.

In our solar system, most planets and the moons that orbit them are named after figures from Greek and Roman mythology. But the moons of Uranus are a notable exception: They take their names from characters in English literature, the vast majority of which are from Shakespeare plays. The planet's two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, are named after the king and queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Others include Ophelia (Hamlet's doomed lover in Hamlet), Cordelia (the king's youngest daughter in King Lear), and Miranda (one of the principal characters in The Tempest, the daughter of the sorcerer Prospero). Three of the names — Umbriel, Ariel, and Belinda — are characters from the poetry of Alexander Pope. But since Ariel is also a character in The Tempest, either 24 or 25 of the 27 moons of Uranus are named for Shakespeare characters, depending on how you count it.

Thank you for supporting our advertisers!