Where there’s a famous will ...

When William Shakespeare bequeathed his “second-best bed” to his wife nearly 400 years ago, a scribe dipped his quill pen in ink and scratched the bard’s last wishes on parchment.

Now the public can see the playwright’s final will and testament on a computer screen with the click of a mouse.

The document is among more than 1 million wills, spanning five centuries, that Britain’s National Archives posted on the Internet this week at www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk.

About 100 wills dated from 1384 to 1858 have been collated in a special section befitting their famous authors, including Jane Austen, Capt. James Cook, William Wordsworth, John Donne and Napoleon Bonaparte. Shakespeare’s is free to download, but the others cost $5.40 each.

Shakespeare’s will (dated March 25, 1616, less than a month before he died) is considered to be of particular significance because it contains three of the six surviving examples of his signature.