wife. This was first proposed by Andrew Gurr in 1971. Gurr suggested that the words "hate away" may be a pun (in Elizabethan pronunciation) on "Hathaway". It has also been suggested that the next words, "And saved my life", would have been indistinguishable in pronunciation from "Anne saved my life". Gurr says in his work “Shakespeare's First Poem: Sonnet 145” that Shakespeare wrote this poem in 1582, making Shakespeare only 18. "The only explanation that makes much sense is that the play on 'hate' and throwing 'hate away' by adding an ending was meant to be read by a lady whose surname was Hathaway" (223). He argues that because spelling was not consistent in Shakespeare's time there is no way of knowing for sure whether it was to her or not. He does think it is plausible that such a pun on her name exists within this sonnet since he does make other puns in various other sonnets. Analysis by other critics Michael Wood agrees with Andrew Gurr in the idea of this poem being about Anne and says it would make sense for this sonnet to be about her because, "He [Shakespeare] was vulnerable. Anne was twenty-six and knew the world. Reading between the lines, she would be the rock on which he relied through his life, supporting his career in London" (Wood 1978: 87). Hilda Hulme disagrees with Andrew Gurr's take in 'Hathaway' in her essay Sonnet 145: 'I Hate, From Hathaway She Threw'. Hulme believes that Shakespeare is not in fact talking about his mistress or his wife, as Gurr believes with the pun taken on 'hate' and 'Hathaway', but that he is talking about an Old-English colloquial expression, "For those who know the imprecation 'May the devil take it', in the form Deil hae't 'Devil have it', the possibility of this 'hate' pun seems strikingly confirmed by Shakespeare's 'fiend' context" (427). Hulme continues to break Gurr's interpretation by suggesting that "there is, I think, at present no clear linguistic evidence in [Gurr's] support" and that her research in Stratford shows no signs of "evidence at all to confirm [Gurr's] suggestion that 'in Stratford in 1582 Hathaway and hate-away would have been a very tolerable pun'" (427). Hulme explains this by describing how her research findings showed no relation or "tolerable pun" between the end-part of the verb of 'hate' (having a specific t sound) and Hathaway