2024-03-28 19:36:55
Professor Matthew Stegall of the Department of English at the University of Bristol has revealed the mystery that the Last Will and Testament of the Soul manuscript was not written by Shakespeare’s father but by his sister Joan.
Its fate is curious because the work was hidden by a Jesuit monk who made special holes in the walls where works devoted to the Catholic faith were secretly kept. Although he was killed, the cache survived and the document was discovered around 1770 by a bricklayer in the walls of the Shakespeare family house in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The idea of the text is that Joan insists on staying in Catholicism, at a time when it was quite difficult in England. At the end, she even vows to keep this faith to the end. That is why until recently it was believed that the father of the genius William Shakespeare – John was a disguised Catholic and a writer, but today it turns out that the manuscript was prepared after his death.
On the other hand, the work reveals that the sister was also tempted by writing, but in that era she had no chance to exercise her talent.