Last Wills of Shakespeare vs John Heminges (owner of the Globe theater)

[jmbar2]

4. I find old wills interesting because they offer such a detailed look into the daily lives of people in the past.

The Domesday Book showed how paltry the possessions were of even fairly "middle class" people, and the value placed on what would be thrown away today - clothing, pots, straw mattresses. I was surprised to see inclusion of clothing and beds in the wills of the Shakespearean era. They must have been pretty nasty.

Unrelated, but interesting to history nerds... Have you ever read the Book of Margery Kempe? It is one of my favorites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Margery_Kempe

Several things I found delightful about the stories in her book: She was somewhat of a kook, with no filters. She reminds me of the character Hyacinth Bouquet from Keeping up Appearances. . She writes about enjoying a lusty early life, bearing 14 children before having a mystic conversion of some sort. She left them with her husband in a cooperative agreement to go on a mission to Jerusalem.

She was prone to "fits" of some sort, which nearly got her burned as a witch. The book provides a lot of detail about the tourism/pilgrimage industry of the time - costs, routes taken, conditions of various countries along the way (Rome was in turmoil), and the tourist facilities in Jerusalem.

Her piety, fits, and obnoxiousness so troubled the other people on the tour that they tried several times to abandon her along the way. But she always found her way back. It's a very funny tale. Highly recommend.