We open on the morning of Will’s burial and through a series of flashbacks Anne remembers her first meeting with the Bard, their “shotgun” wedding, his move to London (they lived apart for most of their marriage,) her raising of their three children and then his return home and death. The title comes from perhaps the only bit of trivia we know about Anne … in his will Bill left her his “second-best bed.”
Since I prefer to think about William Shakespeare as little as humanly possible, you can probably guess how much I think about his wife. Yet Shakespeare’s Will forced me to consider that in life, Anne was only ever Will’s wife … but in death, she’s still not her own person. This was brought home when Wikipedia told me “This article is about the wife of William Shakespeare. For the actress, see Anne Hathaway.” Poor Anne (The first one, I mean). Will she ever be seen for herself? -Ted Hoover, Pittsburgh Current
