Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 1, No. 50. Friday, 7 Sep 1990. Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 19:40 EST From: <DORENKAMP@HLYCROSS> Subject: 2nd best bed Whatever the legalities involved, the willing of the second best bed to Anne will inevitably be read in the light of our attitude toward the couple and our perception of their relationship. Was that later addition to the will an act of kindness or of spite? Can we ever know? Perhaps we would do well to heed (an admittedly not always trustworthy) Anthony Burgess. He says With the name Hathaway chiming in our ears, we come to the mystery of Will's bequest to his widow. He left her 'the second-best bed' and nothing else. Whatever the significance of that solitary item, his provisions for her were less harsh than they seem. She had her widow's dower at common law, and her dowager's place in the great house that Susanna and her husband took over. She was content to live with Susanna and she got on well enough with her son-in-law. The second-best bed was installed in a particular chamber, and this chamber was to be inalienably hers. The best bed was in the master bedchamber, and the inheritrix took that by right. It was thus a means of clarifying accommodation. To show Will in an unpleasant light, we can prefer to believe that the second-best bed was the double bed she brought from Shottery, and all he did was to give her what was already hers. This implies a failure of love, an absence of love, a detestation long hidden from the world, a desire to humiliate from the grave. Let us try to keep Will likable. (*Shakespeare*, London: Jonathan Cape, 1970)