… your second best bed with furniture? This is what William Shakespeare bequeathed to his wife, Anne Hathaway!
‘Furniture’ refers to the curtains and bedcover!!
What would you do if your spouse or someone else bequeathed you with something so strange as a bed and duvet?!!
I wonder who got the best bed ,my spouse can have our bed no one else will want it.
@Artangel - You’ve been reading Phillipa Gregory books. Either that or you have been at the cooking sherry again! 
None of those! ST.
I went to a charity quiz on Friday and this was one of our questions. Luckily, one of our team had studied William Shakespeare and knew the answer.
This was great, as we won the quiz over 16 other teams!!
Another question was, ‘Why did Lady Godiva ride through Coventry, naked on a horse?
Anyway, the bit about William Shakespeare fascinated me, so l thought l would use it in a thread!!
Why? 
Mellors would not have allowed that! Think it may have been Lady Godiva!
Gosh, l wondered why it didn’t sound quite right!
Excuse me whilst l edit it! Thank You, for flagging that up.
I would burn it and put the ashes into his coffin
Haha, leaving your spouse the “2nd best bed” does sound like a bit of an insult today but back in Shakespeare’s day it wasn’t.
I remember a historian talking about that famous bit in Shakespeare’s Will - apparently in those days, the “best bed” would probably have been a “status symbol” guest bed and the “2nd best bed” was probably their own marital bed.
The marital bed was often bequeathed to the main heir, so leaving Anne the marital bed may have been a mark of affection!
Although the bed was all that was specifically mentioned for Anne in the Will, she was left a fairly wealthy widow, and continued to live in the big, posh house that Shakespeare had bought with his earnings - widows in those days had a lot more independence and autonomy than wives did - they automatically inherited at least one third of their husband’s wealth under dower entitlements and sometimes a lot more if the couple owned property under a jointure arrangement.
If I died I would bequeath my wife to science. (unless she did the right thing and threw herself on my funeral pyre)
If it was Will’s then I’d flog it to the highest US bidder coz they love everything British with history.
Another question was, ‘Why did Lady Godiva ride through Coventry, naked on a horse?
Art, I seem to remember it was in protest of the high taxation her husband imposed on his tenants. I also remember hearing that the commoners turned their backs in respect of her gesture, albeit one - Peeping Tom - who was then struck blind.
LT, With leaving their ‘second best bed’ to a wife and publicly riding nude on a horse to spite a husband… there sure were some weird marriages in those days!!
