under our title, than the following simple and touching will of a French priest, Jean Certain, curé of a little parish in the Côte-d’Or, who died in 1740, with some 1200l.:
“I brought with me nothing into my parish but my cassock and breviary,—these I leave to my heirs: the rest I bequeath to the poor of my parish.”
This reminds us of a conversation we once had with a foreign ecclesiastic on the subject of celibacy. We dilated on the comforts of the parson’s home in England,—the delectable children,—the charming wife. “But,” interrupted our friend the priest, “I have a wife too,—my parish!”
Wives, poor bodies! do not come off so well always as did the parish-wife of Jean Certain; for a crabbed husband will sometimes control and torment his good woman after he is dead and buried, or even play a bitter jest, as did one man, who left his wife 500 guineas, but with the stipulation, that she was not to enjoy it till after her death, when the sum was to be expended on her funeral. Or, as the author of the following:
“Since I have had the misfortune of having had to wife Elizabeth M, who, since our marriage, has tormented me in a thousand ways; and since, not content with showing her contempt for my advice, she has done everything that lay in her power to render my life a burden to me; so that Heaven seems only to have sent her into the world for the purpose of getting me out of it the sooner; and since the strength of Samson, the genius of Homer, the prudence of Augustus, the skill of Pyrrhus, the patience of Job, the subtlety of Hannibal, the vigilance of Hermogenes, would not suffice to tame the perversity of her character; and since nothing can change her, though we have lived separated for eight years, without my having gained anything by it but the loss of my son, whom she has spoiled, and whom she has persuaded to abandon me altogether; weighing carefully and attentively all these considerations, I have bequeathed, and do bequeath, to the aforesaid Elizabeth M, my wife, one shilling.”
The clause in Shakespeare’s will must not be forgotten:
“I gyve unto my wief, my second-best bed, with the furniture,” and nothing else.
We hope that this was not intended as a spiteful jest; but men are irritable, and women are so trying! The best bed would not have been a bad gift, as the grand four-poster was an expensive article in Elizabethan days; but the second-best seems rather a paltry legacy. However, as we are perfectly sure to have the noble army of Shakespearean commentators down upon us, if we venture to impute other than the highest and purest of motives to their idol, for the sake of peace we are perfectly willing to believe the bed to have been the most valuable gift that could have been made,—that sovereigns, roses, and angels were stitched into the coverlets and stuffed into the pillows; just as the miser Tolam bequeathed:
“To my sister-in-law, four old stockings which are under my bed, on the right.
Item: To my nephew, Tarles, two more old stockings.
Item: To Lieut. John Stone, a blue stocking, and my red cloak.
Item: To my cousin, an old boot, and a red flannel pocket.
Item: To Hannach, my jug without a handle.”
Imagine the disgust of the legatees, till Hannach, kicking the jug, smashed it, and out rolled a quantity of sovereigns. The stockings, boot, and flannel pocket were soon seized now, and found to be as auriferous as the old pot. Now why should not the second-best bed left to Mrs. Shakespeare have been as valuable a bequest? We suggest this to Messrs. Dyce, Knight, Collier, Halliwell, and Co.
Whilst talking about beds, let us not forget a very odd story. In the earlier part of this century, there lived in the neighbourhood of Caen, in Normandy, a Juge de Paix, M. Halloin, a great lover of tranquillity and ease; so much so indeed, that, as bed is the article of furniture most adapted to repose, he rarely quitted it, but made his bed-chamber a hall of audience, in which he exercised his functions of Justice of Peace, pronouncing sentence, with his head resting on a pillow, and his body languidly extended on the softest of feather-beds. However, his services were dispensed with, and he devoted himself for the remaining six years of his life to still greater ease. Feeling his end approach, M. Halloin determined on remaining constant to his principle, and showing to the world to what an extent he carried his passion for bed. Consequently, his last will contained a clause expressing his desire to be buried at night, in his bed, comfortably tucked in, with pillows and coverlets as he had died. As no opposition was raised against the execution of this clause, a huge pit was sunk, and the defunct was lowered into his last resting-place, without any alteration having been made in the position in which death had overtaken him.
Boards were laid over the bed, that the falling earth might not disturb this imperturbable quietist.
Many testators leave directions for the treatment of their bodies: some are over-solicitous for their preservation, whilst others choose to show their contempt for that body, which, after all, will rise again; Dr. Ellerby, the Quaker, for instance, who bequeathed his lungs to one friend and his brains to another, with a threat that he would haunt them if they refused to accept the legacy. Others, from motives of humility, act somewhat similarly. The Emperor, Maximilian I., willed that his hair should be shorn, and his teeth brazed in a mortar, and then burned publicly in his chapel; also that his body should be buried in a sack with quick-lime, beneath the footpace of the altar of S. George at Neustadt, so that his heart might be beneath the celebrant’s feet. His intentions were carried out at the time: but afterwards his remains were translated to Inspruck, and they now lie under that goodly monument raised by Ferdinand I., his deeds graven tenderly in white marble about him, and eight-and-twenty mighty bronze paladins and princes standing guard about the choir wherein he sleeps.
If some folk leave injunctions about their bodies, others are as particular about their names. Henry Green, for instance, by will dated 22nd