Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
The rule and question of a testament.
A man hath made his testament, the which hath left his wife great [with child] / & hath
ordained in his testament that if she brought forth a son he should have two parts of his
goods, that is to wit / of 1200 crowns. And his wife the other part / and if she brought
forth a daughter, then the mother should have two parts, and the daughter the other
part. It happeneth when the man is dead the wife bringeth forth a son and a daughter. I
demand how shall they divide the 1200 crowns. (o2v)
The answer presented by the text is to divide the legacy into seven parts, with four
parts for the son, two parts for the mother, and one part for the daughter. One must
use arithmetic to make the calculations, but there is no mathematical motivation for
the division into seven parts. Such a testament would probably be null and void in
sixteenth-century England, and all of the parties would likely have an actionable claim
for not receiving exactly his or her stated share. It is apparent that this is an attempt to
maintain equity in the face of legal rigor.
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The example also raises interesting questions
about the contemporary hierarchy of genders and about the patriarchal reach of the
father from beyond the grave, as we more familiarly know from the case of Portia of
Belmont:
The rule and question of the eggs.
A young maiden beareth eggs to the market for to sell and her meeteth a young man
that would play with her in so much that he overthroweth and breaketh the eggs every
one, and will not pay for them. The maid doth him to be called afore the judge. The
judge condemneth him to pay for the eggs / but the judge knoweth not how many eggs
there were. And that he demandeth of the maid / she answereth that she is but young,
and cannot well count. (o8v)
The example proceeds to explain that the girl and her mother were able to position the
eggs in various geometric arrangements that provide clues to the total number. The
judge is able to use this information to arrive at the answer: the young maiden started
out to market with 721 eggs. The problem here is that no mathematical principle is
taught that would allow one to solve this problem independently of the text. The text
gives a strong hint about what the answer is likely to be and then works through some
basic multiplication to verify that the hint is indeed correct. Also of interest is the touch
of sexual dalliance, the mathematical ignorance of the young girl (she seems not to have
studied the text in which she appears, though it is implied that the judge will have done
so), the appeal to the law for redress, and the implausible, though not impossible claim
