Last Will and Testaments

A “Last Will and Testament” is a document listing out the instructions for how to handle your remaining worldly goods after your death. It is an opportunity for the living to share their wishes from beyond the grave. In As You Like It, Orlando mentions this practice by saying “...give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes.” In Julius Caesar the group cries out “The will! the testament!” Again in In Timon of Athens, the Painter says “performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.” Obviously, Shakespeare’s making a metaphorical statement in that last use of will or testament, but the references declare a history here to documenting one’s final wishes and the process of carrying out your bequests. Here today to help us explore what wills and testaments were like for the 16-17th century, who wrote them, what they included, and taking a look at the details of Shakespeare’s own will and testament, is our guest and expert in the history of wills and testaments from the 16th all the way to the 19th centuries, Laura Sangha. 

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