Shakespeare's will

William Shakespeare's last will and testament was signed on 25 March 1616, just under a month before his death. The document has been studied for details of his personal life, for his opinions, and for his attitudes towards his two daughters, Susanna and Judith, and their respective husbands, John Hall and Thomas Quiney. The best-known passage of the will is the bequest to the wife of his "second best bed"; though the meaning and significance of this phrase is not certain.

The content of the will has also been studied for clues about Shakespeare's religious beliefs, his health, and his relationship to his colleagues in the London theatre-world.

Shakespeare's will was made shortly after his daughter Judith was married to Thomas Quiney. He first summoned his lawyer, Francis Collins, in January 1616, shortly before the couple's wedding on 10 February. A draft of the will was made, but not signed. It was soon revealed that Quiney had made another girl, named Margaret Wheeler, pregnant. In mid-March 1616, Margaret Wheeler died in childbirth; her baby died with her, and they were both buried on 15 March. On 25 March, Shakespeare made a number of alterations to his will, probably because he was dying and because of particular concerns regarding Thomas Quiney. In the first draft of the will there had been an apparent provision "vnto my sonne in L[aw]"; but "sonne in L[aw]" was then struck out, with Judith's name inserted in its stead.

There is evidence that Shakespeare had a close relationship with his other son-in-law, John Hall, who was married to his second daughter Susannah.

Other persons mentioned in the will are friends and business associates in Stratford and in London, including several of his colleagues from the theatre.

The preamble is conventional and typical of other wills of the period:

In the name of God Amen. I William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwickshire gent., in perfect health & memory God be praised, do make & ordain this my last will & testament in manner & form following. That is to say first, I commend my Soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping & assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour to be made partaker of life everlasting. And my body to the earth whereof it is made.

The phrase beginning with "the only merits of Jesus Christ..." (making Christ the unique agent of salvation) is an explicitly Anglican or Protestant formula, as differentiated from pre-Reformation and later Roman Catholic formulae in which the intercession of saints and others of the celestial company is often invoked for the salvation of the soul.