Para1

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel




And shining morning face, creeping like snail




Unwillingly to school.

(As You Like It 2.7.145-147)

Shakespeare would probably have begun his schooling at age four or five in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon’s petty school. There, boys (and perhaps a few girls) were taught to read and write, in addition to basic arithmetic and foundational Christian principles. Petty schools often used a tool called a hornbook in these initial lessons. It featured a wooden paddle with printed sheet of paper or inscribed parchment attached that showed the alphabet and some vowel combinations; the paper or parchment was covered by a thin, mainly transparent sheet of animal horn to protect it.

Para2After about two years in petty school, Shakespeare would have advanced to the grammar school at about age seven, where he would have studied the beginnings of Latin grammar. From about ages seven to nine, boys learned Latin grammar and vocabulary. They progressed to translation and composition from ages ten to fourteen. The experience was apparently worth writing about later. Shakespeare takes time in The Merry Wives of Windsor to make fun of boys learning Latin, with the uneducated Mistress Quickly mistaking the grammatical word genitive as slang for female genitalia:

Evans: What is your genitive case plural, William?...

William: Genitivo, horum, harum, horum

Quickly: Vengeance of Jenny’s case. Fie on her! Never name her child, if she be a whore.

(4.1.58-64)

Shakespeare would have begun to read plays in grammar school, especially the plays of Plautus, the most admired writer of Latin comedy. Much of The Comedy of Errors is based on a Plautus play entitled Menaechmi, which translates as “the twin brothers”. Shakespeare would have also studied the Roman poet Ovid, whose elegantly retold myths feature strongly in plays such as Titus Andronicus, where the tragic tale of Procne and Philomel appears, as well as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which uses the story of Pyramus and Thisbe to great comic effect.

Para3Shakespeare would also have been introduced to rhetoric and some logic through the writings of Cicero, a great Roman orator who lived at the time of Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, and who is briefly mentioned in the play Julius Caesar. The young man would have also studied Roman history and philosophy and perhaps some rudimentary Greek. Although boys normally attended grammar school until age 15 or 16, Shakespeare may have been forced to leave school as early as 1577, at age 13, because of his father’s documented financial difficulties that were severe enough that John Shakespeare lost his place as a leading civic official due to debt.

Para4There are no records of Shakespeare’s activities during his boyhood, although his father’s property and legal records indicate that the family continued to live in Stratford. Although no enrollment registers survive, Shakespeare, as the son of a public official like John Shakesepeare, likely attended King Edward’s School. The school, which was founded in 1482 and still enrolls pupils ages 11-18, notes that In the 1570s, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare was educated in a room in the Upper Guildhall. In what is still known as ‘Big Schoolʼ, from the age of seven Shakespeare would have been taught Latin, Rhetoric, and perhaps Greek. Lessons began with prayers at six o’clock in the morning during summer, and continued until five o’clock in the afternoon. In winter, although boys were expected to bring their own candles, the poor light meant a shorter day lasting from seven o’clock. The standards at the Stratford grammar school seem to have been higher than average; existing records indicate that all the masters of the school held university degrees during the time in which Shakespeare would have been attending, which was not the case for all grammar schoools.

Para5Boys who completed grammar school and who had the financial means could go on to attend university at Oxford or Cambridge, but there is no record of Shakespeare attending university.

Para6Although scholars lack clear evidence about the nature of Shakespeare’s religious faith, the official religion of the Stratford community was the Church of England. Under the 1559 Act of Uniformity, which restored the English prayer book after the Catholic period under Mary I, the English interpretation of Christianity was Protestant. However, English people held a range of beliefs, particularlu regarding the nature of Communion. Shakespeare’s religious education at school would have focused on content from the Homilies, which were the authorized sermons. His local church and his schoolmasters would have used the Geneva Bible, an English translation of the scriptures completed in 1560, and the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, which detailed the rituals and teachings of the Church of England