FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
And so I went to see Hamnet (the movie on everyone’s lips) about the death of Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet (the name was interchangeable with Hamlet in 1600s’ Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare’s birth place).
The movie is hugely popular especially here in Ireland as it has not one, not two, but a trilogy of Irish connections: it’s based on the book, Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell while the two leading roles are played by Kildare’s Paul Mescal (Shakespeare) while Kerry-born Jessie Buckley plays his wife, a role for which she received a Golden Globe award – and it’s worth going to see Hamnet for Jessie Buckley’s powerful performance alone. An Oscar may be in the offing.
Be that as it may, I personally found the movie a tad too long and, as gripping as it is (the death of a child and the pain of grief-stricken parents, evoke powerful emotions). Is is somewhat tedious betimes. It is also worth noting that the movie is more fiction than fact.
Unfortunately very little is known about Shakespeare’s life, which is rather ironic really considering the volume of writings that he left behind. It is also an ongoing debate as to whether Shakespeare actually wrote the works!
Here, however, is a definite fact about The Bard: when Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52, he left behind a widow, Anne Hathaway and two daughters, Susanna and Judith. He also left behind him two beds which may shed some light on Shakespeare’s peculiar relationship with his wife. In fact not long after he got married the bold William skipped off with a company of players as an actor and playwright and spent most of his life with several such companies in London and touring the provinces, paying the odd visit home.
Shakespeare returned to Stratford, and his wife, towards the end of his life. And it was in Stratford on March 25. 1616, just a few short weeks before his death, that he drafted his last will and testament, preserved in an oak box in Somerset House in London. One line of the will most certainly catches the eye and it goes as follows: “Item: I give unto my wife my second best bed.”
“Second best bed”! The line has confirmed in many a person’s mind Shakespeare’s relationship with his wife who obviously came second to his acting and playwriting in London. It’s also worth noting that this was a time when it was customary for men to heap high praise on their wives and remember them in glowing terms of endearment in their wills. Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his estate to the male heirs of his elder daughter Susanna and intended his “best” bed for her husband, John Hall, a physician. Strange as it may sound it was quite common in those days for men to leave beds to each other!
A good bed with a soft, comfortable mattress, free of vermin and fleas was a prized possession. There is a second interpretation of Shakespeare’s bequest of the “second best bed” to his wife, which says that Anne Hathaway was in no way insulted by the will. She apparently was well looked after and received one third of the income generated by her husband’s estate. Besides, Shakespeare knew that his wife would live out her days with his daughter Susanna and her husband and that they, as a married couple, would make better use of the “best bed”. Or at least better use than The Bard and his wife made of it.
I’m between two minds myself regarding Shakespeare’s two beds. However the following piece of information has left me with serious second thoughts as to what was going on. One of Shakespeare’s last wishes, apparently, was that the following verse be chiseled on his tombstone:
“Blest be the man that spares these stones
And curst be the man that moves my bones.”
Shakespeare intended the request to deter grave robbers but it also prevented his grave from being opened to accept the body of his wife, Anne Hathaway who died seven years after her husband and presumably in his “second best bed”.
