Synopses & Reviews
This edition constitutes a new archive of source materials in the field of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. It is a collection of over one hundred wills left by those who participate in the life of the theatre - from actors and dramatists to carpenters and costumiers. The wills not only offer vital historical evidence but are also important human documents, testaments to the social, financial, religious and sentimental lives of Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Of the wills reprinted here, one third are newly discovered, and many of the rest printed for the first time from the original wills, this preserving the vacillations and abandoned intentions of the testators.
About the Author
E.A.J. Honigmann was Joseph Cowen Professor of English at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Susan Brock is Librarian and Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham
Table of Contents
Introduction
Social history
1. The theatrical community
2. Wealth and finance
3. The personal voice
Testamentary procedure
4. Wills and the law
5. The making of the will
6. The form of the will
7. Probate
Conclusion
List of testators by date of will or administration
List of testators by occupation
Documents
8. Wills
9. Some administrations of interest
10. Inventories
Appendices
11. Acting companies to 1642
12. Printed indexes to wills
Index of persons