SHAKESPEARE’S WILL

Among Shakespeare’s writings, I think that attention should be paid to his WILL, for, upon a careful perusal, it will be found to have been in all probability composed by himself. It seems much too simple, terse, and condensed, to have been the composition of a Stratford attorney, who was to be paid by the number of lines which it contained. But a testator, without professional experience, could hardly have used language so appropriate as we find in this will, to express his meaning.

Shakespeare, the greatest of British dramatists, appears to have been as anxious as Sir Walter Scott, the greatest of British novelists, to found a family, although he does not require all his descendants to "bear the name and arms of Shakespeare." But, as far as the rules of English law would permit, he seeks to perpetuate in an heir male, descended from one of his daughters (his son having died [129] in infancy, and there being no longer any prospect of issue male of his own), all the houses and lands he had acquired—which were quite sufficient for a respectable Warwickshire squire. His favourite daughter, Susanna, married to Dr. Ball, an eminent physician, was to be the stirps from which this line of male heirs was to spring; and the testator creates an estate in tail male—with remainders over, which, but for fines and recoveries, would have kept the whole of his property in one male representative for generations to come.

The will, dated 25th March, 1616, a month before his death, having given legacies to various friends and relations, thus proceeds:

Item, I give, will, bequeath, and devise, unto my daughter, Susanna Hall, for better enabling of her to perform this my will and towards performance thereof, all that capital messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, in Stratford aforesaid, [130] called the New Place, wherein I now dwell, and two messuages or tenements with the appurtenances, situate, lying, and being in Henley Street, within the borough of Stratford aforesaid; and all my barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever, situate, lying, and being, or to be had, received, perceived, or taken, within the towns, hamlets, villages, fields, and grounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe, or in any of them, in the said county of Warwick; and also all that messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situate, lying, and being in the Blackfriars in London, near the Wardrobe; and all other my lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever; to have and to hold all and singular the said premises, with their appurtenances, unto the said Susanna Hall, for and during the term of her natural life; and after her decease, to the first son of her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the body of the said first son lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to the said second son of her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the body of the second son lawfully issuing; and for default of such heirs, to the third son of the body of the said Susanna lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the body of the said third son lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, the same so to be and remain to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons of her body, lawfully issuing one after another, and to the heirs males of the bodies of the said fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sons lawfully issuing, in such manner as it is before limited to be and remain to the first, second, and third sons of her body, and to their heirs males; and for default of such [131] issue, the said premises to be and remain to my said niece Hall, and the heirs males of her body lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heirs males of her body lawfully issuing; and for default of such issue, to the right heirs of me the said William Shakespeare for ever.

In his Will when originally engrossed, there was no notice whatever taken of his wife; but immediately after these limitations he subsequently interpolated a bequest to her in the following words:

I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture.

The subject of this magnificent gift being only personal property, he shows his technical skill by omitting the word devise, which he had used in disposing of his reality.* [132]

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* The idolatrous worshippers of Shakespeare, who think it necessary to make his moral qualities as exalted as his poetical genius, account for this sorry bequest, and for no other notice being taken of poor Mrs. Shakespeare in the will, by saying that he knew she was sufficiently provided for by her right to dower out of his landed property, which the law would give her; and they add that he must have been tenderly attached to her, because (they take upon themselves to say) she was exquisitely beautiful as well as strictly virtuous. But she was left by her husband without house or furniture (except the second best bed), or a kind word, or any other token of his love; and I sadly fear that between William Shakespeare and Ann Hathaway the course of true love never did run smooth. His boyish inexperience was no doubt pleased for a short time with her caresses; but he probably found that their union was "misgraffed in respect of years," and gave advice from his own experience when he said:

To strengthen the suspicion that Shakespeare was likely not to have much respect for his wife, persons animated by the spirit of the late John Wilson Croker (although Shakespeare's biographers, in the absence of any register of his marriage, had conjectured that it took place in June, 1582), by searching the records of the Ecclesiastical Court at Worcester, have lately made the very awkward discovery that the bond given on grant of the licence for William Shakespeare to marry Ann Hathaway is dated 26th November, 1582, while the entry in the parish register of the baptism of Susanna, their eldest child, is dated 26th May, 1583. As Shakespeare, at the time of this misfortune, was a lad of eighteen years of age, and Miss Hathaway was more than seven years his senior, he could hardly have been the seducer; and I am afraid that she was "no better than she should be," whatever imaginary personal charms may be imputed to her.