Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare) to liberate England from Spanish dominion. A similarly loveless relationship is depicted in the film "A Waste of Shame" (2005). "The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare" (2010), a novel by Arliss Ryan, also proposes Anne Hathaway as the true author of many of the Shakespeare plays (a claim originally made in 1938). In the novel, Anne follows Will to London to support his acting career. As he finds his true calling in writing, Anne's own literary skills flower, leading to a secret collaboration that makes William Shakespeare the foremost playwright in Elizabethan England. She is portrayed by Liza Tarbuck in
Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare) small house. The bequest was thus not as minor as it might seem in modern times. In Elizabethan custom the best bed in the house was reserved for guests. If so, then the bed that Shakespeare bequeathed to Anne could have been their marital bed, and thus not intended to insult her. However, the will as initially drafted did not mention Anne at all. It was only through a series of additions, made on March 25, 1616, slightly less than a month before Shakespeare died, that the bequest to his wife of his "second best bed with the furniture" was