CURIOUS WILLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20022, 12 February 1927, Page 19

CURIOUS WILLS.

STRANGE TESTAMENTS. GRUESOME AND JOKING. Shakespeare’s will was full of interlineations and erasures. His wife’s name was omitted from the original draft, and was in the final draft only by an interlineation assigning to her his second best bed with its furniture. Nothing else was bequeathed to her. This slender bequest_ set speculation going, but probably her ignorance of business affairs and the fact that she was (hen over 60 led the poet to the conclusion that she was unfit for the control of property. Ho committed her to the care of liis eldest daughter, who inherited some of his own shrewdness. The mention of the bed recalls that beds were a luxury. Edward the Black Prince left to his eldest son “a new bed of red caniak, and a great bed embroidered with angels.” Dame Maude Parr loft to her daughter Anne u four-poster of green tinsel and white satin, embroidered with blue velvet. Lady Hastings having borrowed money from her friend, Cecilia, March oncss of Dorset, directed in her will "that the said Cecilia, in full contentation of such sums that I e;ve unto her, shall have my groat bed of arras, which she lately borrowed of me.” The last will and testament of Cecily, Duchess of York, has a cataloglue of peculiar treasures. “I give to my lord Priner a bedde of arras of the whole of fortune and canopy of the same, a counterpoint of arras, and a tappett of arras with the Pope.” The oldest English will on record is that of Alfred the Great in the original Saxon. In the Middle Ages wills often provided for the preservation of testator’s heart. The Earl of Huntingdon directed that his should be embalmed in spices and reverently deposited n the church. Robert the Bruce willed that his heart bo conveyed to Palestine, a bequest which cost Lord James of Douglas his for on the journey to Jerusalem he fell fighting with the Moors in Spain. The sacred relic was brought to Scotland and buried in the monastery of Melrose. The most grim and loathsome deed connected with the disposal of a physical organ is from France. Seigneur de Fayel intercepted a package addressed to his wife, and found it contained the heart of her trouvere lover, Raoul de Coucy. One might have forgiven the husband if he had cast it to the dogs, but he set the world shuddering by serving it up as a ragout. Old John of Gaunt, unhappy, and with reason, about his soul, made a will which filled 15 quarto pages. It directed that his body should be kept above ground for 40 days, and that on each of those days, 40 marks of silver should be distributed among the poor. “I devise to be burnt round my body on the day of my burial, first 10 great tapers, in the name of the Ten Commandments of our Lord, which I have too wickedly transgressed; and besides these 10, that there be placed seven great tapers in the memory c the seven works of charity which 1 have neglected; and besides these seven I will that there be five great tapers in honour of the five principal wounds of our Lord Jesus, and for my five senses, which I have so negligently wasted, for which I pray God’s mercy.” Another noble person, Isabel, Countess of Warwick (1430), was fond of gay clothing and “fair robes than lay in fold,” but she must also have had a liking for classic beauty, for in her will she said: ‘ T will that my statue be made, all naked, with my hair cast backwards, according to the design and model which Thomas Porchalion has for that purpose; with Mary Magdalen laying her hand across, and St. John the Evangelist on the right side, and St. Anthony on the left. At my feet a scutcheon, impaling my arms with those of the Earl my husband supported by two griffins, but on the sides thereof the statues of poor men and women, with their beads in their hands.” Her husband, the “Good Earl,” desired his executors to cause four images of gold, each weighing 20 pounds.' “to be made like unto myself.’ The countess was to have her statue all naked, but his was to be in a coat of-mail. Bequests to images were quite common, and made them look like princes in their proud apparel. Thomas Dicson, of Beverley, weaver, bequeathed to “the imago of the most sweet Virgin Maryo his belt of red silk, embroidered with silver, and one good napkin.” Wealthy ladies bequeathed jewels and laces to the Virgin, and humbler folk with only one treasure to call their own did the same. In 1388 a mayor of Bristol, Walter Frampton, left a fortune to his wife, but to bo hers only on condition that she led a sober life, devoid of vanity. If she indulged in wan L... mirth, or was too affable to the young men, the executors wore pledged to dispossos her after “three proclamations of the trumpet at the High Altar,” so that her neighbours might know and take warning. Not much chance for a merry widow under that will. A will which jokes seems entirely out of palce, but the fourth Earl of Pembroke was not afraid to let his wit and mirth flow into his last will and testament: — “Item. I give all my door to the Earl of Salisbury, who I know will preserve them, because ho denied the King a buck out of one of his own parks. Item : I give nothing to Lord Say. which legacy I give to him because I know he will bestow it on the poor. Item: To Tom May I give five shillings; I intended him more; but whoever has seen his ‘History of the Parliament’ thinks five shillings too much. Item. I give Lieutenant-general Cromwell one word of mine, because hitherto he never kept his own. Item. I give up the ghost.” Never was a will read in such circumstances as that of Julius Caesar. Enter Antony and others, with Caesar’s body. With groat skill, Antony produces a parchment with the seal of Caesar, declares he does not mean to read it, and so rouses the curiosity of the citizens that they insist on the will being read. It contained a bequest of 75 dachmas to every citizen, and his gardens and arbors on the side of the Tiber to the people and their heirs for ever. No wonder the whole company rushed out ready to bum the traitors’ houses. To come to more modem times, Boswell tolls us Johnson was not free from the general weakness of being averse to execute 'a will, and needed repeated urging before he did it. Fearing this night may put an end to my life, I do ordain this mv last will and testament. I bequeath to God a soul polluted by many sins, but I hope purified by Jesus Christ.” Ho left an annuity for his man servant, a negro. To a gentleman who had assisted his father when he became bankrupt, he left £2OO, considering it an obligation. To some friends he left a book named specially by himself; to others a book at their own election. The faithful Boswell is careful to disabuse the reader’s mind of any idea that the word “polluted” implies more than ordinary contamination. The word was used of themselves by people of undoubted P Hazlitt thinks that few things show the human character in a more ridiciilous light than (he circumstance of will making. “This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice and unmeaning spite. on , th .® other hand, Piny the Younger though it was certainly false through generally believed that a man’s will is the reflection of his character. But the strangest thing of all is that the moment some men make a will they begin to think the day of their death is near.