The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1405 Friday, 26 August 2005
From: Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 25 Aug 2005 08:06:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 16.1387 Shakespeare's Will
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1387 Shakespeare's Will
Gerald E. Downs writes, "Interlineations are always later additions. The
questions are-how late, and how treated? The will was proved in the
Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury (in Doctors' Commons,
London) on June 22, 1616 (two months after Shakespeare's demise and
three months after the will was signed), where PCC records show John and
Susanna Hall to be sworn executors. The original will was copied for the
occasion into the court register, where it remains in place. The
interlineations were incorporated into the body of this text and were
therefore accepted by the executors when the will was proved. It is
probably safe to assume that the bequests were delivered...First, the
interlineations, given their 'proved' contemporary acceptance and their
uniformity within the will, are genuine. Second, I am in agreement with
Tannenbaum that the will is a fair copy. The roughness is due to
corrections and additions. Third, the gifts to the players was probably
added not as an afterthought, but as a correction of omission made in
copying. Last, my guess is that the original will left probate with the
Halls, as was commonly done in that day, and returned to the records
after the resurgence of the poet's popularity. Malone may have been the
first to report from it rather than the Register copy."
Well, well, well. member Downs is to be complimented on this fine piece
of scholarship. It certainly settles a ton of questions about the will.
Given that Will Shakespeare incorporated some formulaic Christian
doctrine into the body of the will, altered it, and both copies are
accepted as reported above, as signed and probated by Will and John and
Susanna Hall ought to put to rest once and for all an equal number of
tons of sidebar comments no longer relevant. Thank you, thank you,
thank you.
Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm
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