the sun in midday
Promptly at nine o'clock in the morning , in the Leicester Park , twenty-five accoutered long bow men , in archery uniform , took their stand before the bull 's eye targets two hundred yards away . At the words `` draw , '' `` aim '' and `` fly '' the whizzing arrows centered and shivered in the oak targets , and none hit the bull 's but Will Shakspere of Stratford , who was proclaimed winner of the first prize , an ox , a barrel of sack and butt of wine , with the privilege of kissing every girl in the county . The entire day was spent in all kinds of sports , and with roasts , joints , bread , pudding , sack , ale , gin , brandy and whiskey , the revelers did not break up until daylight , when all were laid under the table but William and his friends Burbage , Condell and Dick Field , who had come away from his printing house in London to witness one of the greatest rural sports of England . Although Stratford was not a day 's walk from Coventry , William and his friends did not succeed in getting back for three days , and often they traveled by the light of the moon believing it was the sun in midday splendor . Anne Hathaway heard of William 's official and social victory , not in the proud light of his Stratford and Shottery alehouse companions , but with a tongue like a gad , she proposed to lash him into shame as a husband or drive him from his cottage home to earn a living for his infant children . William was a little dubious as to his reception , and in order to temper the storm to the `` ambling lamb , '' he earnestly requested me to accompany him home , as a buffer to his contemplated reception , believing that Anne would mellow her words and actions in the presence of an old friend . I respectfully declined his pressing invitation and twitted him on being afraid of a woman , when he plaintively exclaimed : _ Anne Hath-a-way that gives me pain , She scolds both day and night ; Her tongue goes pattering like the rain And speeds my outward flight ; I 'll soon be gone to London town And leave her house and land Where I will gain some great renown That she may understand .