Shakespeare's Married Life

On what bfisis does the theory rest that Shakespeare was not happy in the later years c,f his married life? writes Dr. William J. J?,-)lfe in L,adies' Home Journal. As we havj seen, his wife was about eight years o!der than himself, and the nuptials had been celebrated in some haste. He had gone to I,onclon a few years later, ïeaving his wife and babies In Stratford. The "Sonnets," which, to my thinking, are unquestionably autobiographical, indícate tliat he had not been able to resist the teínptations of city life - that he had sirwed, and suffered, and repented. Note that terrible outcry of remorse, the ï20th sonnet. It assures us that, vha,tever his errors may have been, Shakespeare repented of them; and his af ter life shows that he brought forth fruits meet for repentence. He nev,r lost his love for his Stratford home. We have seen that as soon as he berrán to be prosperous in London he bought the dilapidated New Place, ami as fast as his means allowed repaired the house, eniarged and impoved the grounds, and gradually mads it the elegant and 'Jelightful home which must have been his ideal from the very first.