Volume 38, Number 18 · November 7, 1991
The Second-Best Bed
By E.A.J. Honigmann
With these words Shakespeare began his will, shortly before his death in 1616, bequeathing to the world a statement of his assets and naming several of his closest friends. The will appears to adopt the impersonal jargon of lawyers and thus, despite the famous 'second-best bed,' to conceal rather than reveal the testator. I want to compare the will with others of the same period and to suggest that Shakespeare's failure to observe some testamentary conventions makes his a most unusual document, one that gives us unexpected insights into his personality and even into his relationship with his wife, Anne Hathaway.
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