Careful, Careful...

Be precise in the language of your will. One British soldier received from his wife’s family an inter vivos gift (as we would term it today) that gave him an annual payment that would continue as long as she was “above ground.” When she died, his lawyer successfully argued that the literal meaning should prevail over the colloquial, and much to his in-laws’ consternation, the widower had her coffin encased in glass and kept above ground until he died, thirty years later, receiving the annuity all the while.

The Greatest Will of All

Shakespeare, a Will himself, also recognized the dramatic power of wills. In Julius Caesar, Antony delivers a funeral oration to “friends, Romans, countrymen” after Caesar’s assassination. While claiming that he came not to praise Caesar, by reciting the clause in Caesar’s will that left every Roman 75 drachmas and his “arbours and ... orchards” as parkland, the wily Antony managed to turn the public against the assassins and inherit Caesar’s political power.

In the climactic scene in The Merchant of Venice, Portia’s father’s will instructs potential suitors for her that they must choose correctly between the gold, silver and lead caskets on stage in order to win her hand.

Literary Wills

Dr. Jekyll’s will left everything to Mr. Hyde.

E. M. Forster's great novel, Howard’s End, turns on a hand-scrawled deathbed will that leaves a family castle to a kind woman who befriended the testator in her last years and showed the same reverence for the old place that the testator herself did.

In his will, a man who'd been gas lighter for a Philadelphia theater for 44 years ordered his head removed and prepared so that it could serve as the skull of Yorick in performances of Hamlet there.

Consistent to the End

P.T. Barnum, always loquacious, wrote a 53-page will, benefiting a whole range of favorites. "Silent Cal " Calvin Coolidge, ever-succinct, spent only 25 words.

One Last Round--On the Estate

Dancer/director Bob Fosse left money in his will for a huge party for his friends.

A New Yorker named Douglas McKelvy inherited millions, but died a few years later in 1973 at age 41. After providing for his children, he left $12,000 to two of his favorite pubs, so that his drinking buddies could imbibe for free after his death. Not surprisingly, the cause of McKelvy's untimely demise was liver disease--brought on by heavy drinking.

The Medium is the Message

Margaret Lacey wrote a will on a roll of wallpaper 15 feet long.

Agnes Burley, a waitress, wrote her last will on two paper napkins. The estate exceeded $30,000—including the tip.