Whodunnit? The Strange Case of Shakespeare’s Will
William Shakespeare is a mystery. What we know about the facts of his life is outweighed by what we don’t know. His life can be likened metaphorically to a jigsaw puzzle in which most of the pieces are missing. It is no wonder, therefore, that he continues to puzzle historians.
One of the most puzzling pieces of the puzzle is the spiritual will and testament of John Shakespeare, the poet’s father, which was discovered in 1757 and has been the cause of controversy ever since. Most recently, Matthew Steggle has argued in the Shakespeare Quarterly that “John Shakespeare’s ‘Spiritual Testament’ Is Not John Shakespeare’s”. On the contrary, he argues, it was not written and/or signed by Shakespeare’s father but by the poet’s sister, Joan Hart.
Before we consider the evidence that Professor Steggle presents, let’s look at the history of the contested document, in which the signatory, be it the poet’s father or sister, affirms a devout and unequivocal belief in the doctrines of the Catholic faith.
In 1930, the Shakespearean scholar, E.K. Chambers, published William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, in which he affirmed the genuineness of John Shakespeare’s spiritual will in the face of earlier suggestions that it had been a forgery.1 Four years later, G.B. Harrison, another eminent Elizabethan and Jacobean scholar, best known for his edition of Shakespeare’s works (1952), concluded cautiously that “Shakespeare’s family was apparently Catholic” and that, therefore, “it follows that Shakespeare was brought up in the old faith”.2 Then, in 1946, John Henry de Groot, in his work of groundbreaking scholarship, The Shakespeares and “The Old Faith”, asserted that the spiritual will “offers strong evidence that John Shakespeare was a Catholic throughout his life, and that his household was infused with the spirit of the old Faith”.3
