William Shakespeare gave the world Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and some of the most famous words ever written in the English language.
When it came time to make his own last statement about what should happen to his property, however, Shakespeare produced something much less poetic: a will.
William Shakespeare made his Last Will and Testament on March 25, 1616. He died less than a month later.
One provision in that will, however, has fascinated readers for centuries.
Shakespeare left his wife, Anne, his:
“second best bed with the furniture.”
Was this Shakespeare’s final insult to Anne?
To understand Shakespeare’s will, we first have to stop thinking like people living in the twenty-first century and start thinking like people living 400 years ago.
Shakespeare’s Original Will Still Exists
The original will was submitted to the Prerogative Court of Canterbury for probate and has remained in public custody ever since. Today, the document is preserved by The National Archives in England.
The original document can be viewed online through The National Archives and through the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Shakespeare Documented project.
View Shakespeare’s original will at The National Archives:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/william-shakespeare/source-1/
The original will is handwritten in an early seventeenth-century legal hand and can be very difficult for a modern reader to decipher. Fortunately, a typed transcription of the complete will can also be found online:
Read a transcription of Shakespeare’s complete will:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_last_will_and_testament
This transcription is particularly useful because it largely preserves the words and spelling found in the original rather than silently converting them into modern English. Thus, a reader encounters spellings such as “gyve,” “wiefe,” “goodes,” “jewles,” and “household stuffe.”
The unfamiliar spelling should not be mistaken for poor spelling by Shakespeare. English spelling had not yet become standardized in the way it is today. The same word—and even a person’s name—could appear in different forms. Shakespeare’s own name survives in several spellings. Indeed, on the will itself his signature is transcribed as “William Shakspeare.”
It is also important to understand that although this was Shakespeare’s will and he signed each of its three sheets, the surviving document is not believed to have been written out in Shakespeare’s own hand. The handwriting does not match that of his lawyer, Francis Collins, either, and scholars believe that a clerk probably prepared the document.
The will tells us about Shakespeare’s wealth, his family, his property, and the people he wanted to benefit after his death.
But understanding what it tells us about Anne requires understanding the very different legal world in which Shakespeare lived.
A Will From a Very Different World
A modern reader approaching Shakespeare’s will naturally brings modern ideas about marriage, property, and inheritance.
The legal world of 1616 was very different.
Property rights within marriage bore little resemblance to modern law, and household goods were not necessarily jointly owned marital property in the modern sense. Most importantly for understanding Shakespeare’s will, a surviving spouse could have legal rights that existed independently of anything written in the will.
That distinction is particularly important in understanding what Shakespeare actually left Anne.
Anne Was Not Necessarily Left With Just a Bed
The fact that Anne received relatively little expressly under Shakespeare’s will does not mean that Shakespeare necessarily left her with nothing except his second-best bed.
A widow had important dower rights under English common law.
Generally speaking, common-law dower gave a widow a life interest in one-third of the qualifying real property her husband owned during the marriage and to which dower rights applied, although the rules contained important exceptions.
That right arose by operation of law rather than from a provision in the husband’s will.
In other words, Shakespeare could make provisions concerning real estate in his will while Anne could nevertheless retain dower rights in property to which those rights applied.
But dower did not mean that Anne automatically received one-third of everything Shakespeare owned.
Dower principally concerned real property. It should not be translated into a modern rule that Anne automatically inherited one-third of Shakespeare’s money, furniture, silver, household possessions, and other personal property.
So the fact that Shakespeare’s will expressly gave Anne only the second-best bed does not tell us everything she received as his widow. Her legal rights in qualifying real estate existed independently of the will.
What Happened to Shakespeare’s Other Possessions?
Shakespeare’s will itself provides some of the best evidence of what happened to his personal possessions.
Shakespeare carefully distributed particular possessions: his plate to his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall, except for a silver-gilt bowl given to his daughter Judith, and his wearing apparel to his sister Joan.
And then there was Anne.
Shakespeare’s will states:
“Item I gyve unto my wiefe my second best bed with the furniture.”
The word “furniture” did not mean a bedroom set in the modern sense. It referred to the furnishings associated with the bed, including such things as its curtains and bedding.
After payment of his debts, legacies, and funeral expenses, Shakespeare left the remainder of his personal estate—including his:
“goodes Chattels Leases plate Jewels & household stuffe whatsoever”
—to Susanna and John Hall.
The second-best bed was therefore specifically carved out of Shakespeare’s personal property and given to Anne, while his remaining “household stuffe” passed under the residuary bequest to Susanna and John Hall.
Was the “Second-Best” Bed an Insult?
For generations, people have interpreted the provision as evidence that Shakespeare disliked his wife.
The theory is understandable.
Imagine reading a modern will stating:
I leave my wife my second-best bed.
It does not exactly sound romantic.
But the phrase did not necessarily carry the meaning a modern reader might give it.
Beds were valuable pieces of property. Contemporary wills regularly identified “best,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and even “worst” beds. Those descriptions could simply identify which particular bed the testator meant rather than express affection or contempt for the person receiving it.
One explanation frequently offered is that the best bed in a prosperous household might have been reserved for guests, while the second-best bed was the bed actually used by the husband and wife.
If that was true in Shakespeare’s household, the gift could have had considerable personal significance.
But we do not know that it was.
There is evidence that calling something a “second-best bed” was not inherently insulting. There is no evidence establishing exactly why Shakespeare chose this particular bed for Anne.
The Bed Was Added to the Will
There is one detail that makes the mystery even more interesting.
The provision for Anne was inserted between lines of the will.
It was not originally written as part of the continuous text surrounding it.
That has naturally produced speculation.
Did Shakespeare suddenly remember that he wanted Anne to have the bed?
Was it particularly important to her?
Was it their marital bed?
Did the bed have some private significance that everyone in Shakespeare’s family understood but that disappeared with them?
Was the provision added on the advice of the person preparing the will?
Was the provision always supposed to be in the will but mistakenly omitted by the person who prepared the document?
Four hundred years later, we simply do not know.
Who Received the Rest of Shakespeare’s Property?
Shakespeare’s principal beneficiary was his older daughter, Susanna Hall.
His will placed extensive real property in a succession beginning with Susanna, including New Place, the substantial Stratford house where Shakespeare lived, together with other houses, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands, and property interests.
The will then attempted through a complicated series of limitations to keep much of the property within Shakespeare’s descendants.
His younger daughter, Judith, received substantial financial provisions.
His granddaughter Elizabeth received his plate, except for the silver-gilt bowl given to Judith.
His sister Joan received money, his clothing, and an interest in the Stratford house where she lived.
Friends, relatives, the poor of Stratford, and others also received gifts.
After the specific gifts, debts, funeral expenses, and other obligations were satisfied, the remaining personal property—including Shakespeare’s “household stuffe”—passed under the residuary clause to Susanna and John Hall, whom Shakespeare named as executors.
The Missing Inventory
One document might have answered many of our questions about Shakespeare’s possessions.
Unfortunately, it has disappeared.
We know that an inventory of Shakespeare’s goods was presented in connection with the probate of his estate, but the inventory itself has not survived.
It was probably among the Prerogative Court of Canterbury probate inventories lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
If we still had it, we might have a much clearer picture of what was inside New Place when Shakespeare died: his furniture, beds, linens, kitchen equipment, silver, clothing, and other personal possessions.
Instead, we have the will.
And the will itself expressly included Shakespeare’s remaining “household stuffe” in the residuary estate passing to Susanna and John Hall.
We just do not know exactly what that household property included.
Do Not Read a 400-Year-Old Will as Though It Were Written Today
Shakespeare’s will offers an important lesson for anyone interested in old wills.
The words themselves are only half the story.
The other half is the law under which those words operated.
You also need to understand the customs that existed when the words were written.
A modern reader sees “second best” and hears an insult.
A seventeenth-century reader might simply have heard an ordinary method of identifying which valuable bed Shakespeare meant.
A modern reader sees that Anne received relatively little under the written will and may conclude that Shakespeare left her almost nothing.
But Anne possessed legal rights as Shakespeare’s widow that existed independently of his will.
Understanding the document therefore requires more than translating Shakespeare’s spelling into modern English.
It requires translating an entire legal world.
The Modern Estate-Planning Lesson
Four hundred years later, Shakespeare’s will still teaches a surprisingly modern lesson.
A will does not necessarily tell you everything a surviving spouse will receive.
Today, property may pass outside a will because it is jointly owned, has a designated beneficiary, is held in trust, or is subject to statutory rights of a surviving spouse.
Lawyers generally discuss a will as only one part of an “estate plan.” A complete estate plan should consider property independently owned by the surviving spouse, jointly owned property that passes by right of survivorship outside the probate estate, property that passes by contract or beneficiary designation, such as life insurance, and property that passes under the will.
Shakespeare lived under a very different legal system.
But the analytical lesson remains useful.
You cannot determine what someone receives at death merely by finding that person’s name in the will and reading the sentence next to it.
You have to determine what the decedent actually owned, what property was controlled by the will, and what rights the survivor possessed independently of it.
That is particularly important when reading Shakespeare’s famous provision for Anne.
So What Did Shakespeare Mean?
We will probably never know.
The second-best bed may have been the bed William and Anne shared, it may have had some other private significance, or it may simply have been a valuable possession Shakespeare wanted Anne to have.
Four hundred years later, whatever meaning the gift had for Shakespeare and Anne has been lost to us.
What we should abandon is the simplistic story that Shakespeare left everything to his daughter and humiliated his wife by tossing her an inferior piece of furniture.
The law was more complicated than that.
Anne had legal rights as Shakespeare’s widow that existed independently of his will. At the same time, Shakespeare expressly included his remaining “household stuffe” in his residuary estate while specifically carving out the second-best bed for Anne.
That makes the bed provision more interesting, not less.
William Shakespeare spent his career writing words that people would debate for centuries.
Appropriately enough, he managed to do the same thing with one sentence in his will.
