18 May 2016

(423) Redat(shap)ing Shakespeare’s will ....inserted text with connections to the theater, why so late and so little ?

When and why these  late 

insertions 

(In Shakspere‘s will)  have taken place?

Bildergebnis für shakespeare's will 
Insertion into Shakespeare's will: "...to my ffellowes John Hemynge Richard Burbage and Henry Cundell, 26 shillings 8 pence apiece to buy them rings

The head of legal records of The National Archives (TNA- the UK government's official archive, containing 1,000 years of history") has reinvestigated  Shakespeare’s original will and  came to the  conclusion   that parts of Shakespeare's  will had to be redated .-

Page two  has been identified as a page reused from a previously unknown will, written earlier, the other two pages were rewritten in January 25, 1616, and that all three pages were slightly amended in darker ink in late March 1616.
The  three-page will is dated 25 January 1616, with January crossed out and replaced by March.

Due to new technical analysis of infrared rays and multispectral analysis, it has been concluded that the paper and ink of the three folios pages are not uniform, and page 2 (click details)  were written with different paper and ink.-
In late March a small number of additions in a darker ink were squeezed (!)  into the will at this point in time, including the change from January to March, including  the bequests of mourning rings to his friends [Heminge, Burbage & Condell  s.Faksimile], and the [second-best] bed to his wife.

Why did it never surprise Shakespeare experts  that the "ingenious superbrain" Shakespere at first completely forgot in his will to leave even a single legacy for the theater and only belatedly  squeezed between  two lines an additional line bequeathing  fellows  (Heminge, Condell) with a ring, without considering more formative figures such as Ben Jonson or Henry Wriothesley?