In order to settle in the World after a Family-manner, he thought fit, Mr. Rowe acquaints us, to marry while he was yet very young.  It is certain, he did so:  for by the Monument, in Stratford Church, erected to the Memory of his Daughter Susanna, the Wife of John Hall, Gentleman, it appears, that she died on the 2d Day of July in the Year 1649, aged 66.  So that She was born in 1583, when her Father could not be full 19 Years old; who was himself born in the Year 1564.  Nor was She his eldest Child, for he had another Daughter, Judith, who was born before her, and who was married to one Mr. Thomas Quiney.  So that Shakespeare must have entred into Wedlock, by that Time he was turn’d of seventeen Years.

Whether the Force of Inclination merely, or some concurring Circumstances of Convenience in the Match, prompted him to marry so early, is not easy to be determin’d at this Distance:  but ’tis probable, a View of Interest might partly sway his Conduct in this Point:  for he married the Daughter of one Hathaway, a substantial Yeoman in his Neighbourhood, and She had the Start of him in Age no less than 8 Years.  She surviv’d him, notwithstanding, seven Seasons, and dy’d that very Year in which the Players publish’d the first Edition of his Works in Folio, Anno Dom. 1623, at the Age of 67 Years, as we likewise learn from her Monument in Stratford-Church.

How long he continued in this kind of Settlement, upon his own Native Spot, is not more easily to be determin’d.  But if the Tradition be true, of that Extravagance which forc’d him both to quit his Country and way of Living; to wit, his being engag’d, with a Knot of young Deer-stealers, to rob the Park of Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot near Stratford:  the Enterprize favours so much of Youth and Levity, we may reasonably suppose it was before he could write full Many.  Besides, considering he has left us six and thirty Plays, which are avow’d to be genuine; (to throw out of the Question those Seven, in which his Title is disputed:  tho’ I can, beyond all Controversy, prove some Touches in every one of them to come from his Pen:) and considering too, that he had retir’d from the Stage, to spend the latter Part of his Days at his own Native Stratford; the Interval of Time, necessarily required for the finishing so many Dramatic Pieces, obliges us to suppose he threw himself very early upon the Play-house.  And as he could, probably, contract no Acquaintance with the Drama, while he was driving on the Affair of Wool at home; some Time must be lost, even after he had commenc’d Player, before he could attain Knowledge enough in the Science to qualify himself for turning Author.