rochelle roberts

ALT Cover of Anne-thology: Poems Re-Presenting Anne Shakespeare. Edited by: Paul Edmondson, Aaron Kent, Chris Laoutaris, Katherine Scheil. With a foreword by Dame Janet Suzman. Published by Broken Sleep Books, A neon portrait of Anne Shakespeare sits in the middle of a lavender background

ALT Anne Hathaway’s Soliloquy When Will Shakespeare did chat me up upon a nimble midsummer’s night, I thought the youth no way backward in coming forward - this budding Bard with a word-hoard up his breeches. There’s me thinking that in callow heat he’d yearned for a night of dalliance with a woman six years his senior. A woman, I might add, of some substance. I could sense he was not flush of finance. Yet he did say with one of many sighs, ’Tis true there’s no time like the now for conjoining two pairs of eyes!’ To which I promptly replied, ‘how sweet!’ And forsooth, it was only a matter of anon before Will dared to pop the question (though not exactly on bended knee.) Should I be saying I do to a glover’s son?  Yet, I swear our hearts did beat in harmony. O by ye gods, we’d fallen for each other’s spell. I, Anne Hathaway, am not one to kiss and tell, but before making our down-the-aisle tracks, my Will and I (oh, I do blush to confess) had done played the beast with two backs. Soon wed