The play is based on a stolen will: the first act shows a family gathered around the bier of Edward Mortimore, who had accumulated wealth in the brewing of beer, which, during his life, was regarded by his family as rather a disreputable business. There is absent from the gathering, only one interested person, and that is an illegitimate daughter, Helen Thornhill, who is an art student in Paris. Helen arrives and is much surprised that her father has not remembered her, for the announcement is made that he left no will; and she wishes that “every ill that’s conceivable” should come upon the heads of those who will inherit. It quickly develops, however, that the father did leave a will, in these words:
“I leave everything I die possessed of to Helen Thornhill, spinster, absolutely, and she is to be my sole executrix.”
A confession discloses the fact that the will has been destroyed by Phyllis, wife of Thaddeus, a brother of the testator. Helen refuses to bring disgrace on the family by a prosecution, and a compromise is effected, by which she receives a substantial portion of the estate.
Dickens a Will-maker
Dickens was a great will-maker. We know that if Dick Swiveller had been a steadier youth he would have inherited more than one hundred and fifty pounds a year from his Aunt Rebecca. The loyal-hearted lover, Mr. Barkis, made Peggotty his residuary legatee. The litigation in Jarndyce v. Jarndyce arose out of a disputed will. The various wills left by old Harmon in “Our Mutual Friend” bring about no end of complications, there being at least three wills in existence at one time, and each one believed by the person discovering it to be the final will.
Mr. George W. E. Russell says that perhaps Dickens’s best piece of will-making is given in the case of Mr. Spenlow, who, being a practitioner in Doctors’ Commons, spoke about his own will with “a serenity, a tranquillity, a calm sunset air” which quite affected David Copperfield; and then shattered all poor David’s hopes by dying intestate.
Perplexities of Poor Cecilia
All the perplexities and distresses of poor Cecilia, in Frances Burney’s “Memoirs of an Heiress,” grew out of a clause in her uncle’s will, imposing the condition that if she married, her husband should take her family name of Beverly. Poor Cecilia! What doubts and difficulties beset her by reason of this unfortunate provision; and too, it gives the authoress an excellent opportunity to harrow up the reader on account of these delicate uncertainties and distresses.
Olivia’s Will
It was suggested to Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” that her graces would go to the grave and no copy be held; she responds: