Literacy in Early Modern England Literacy in Early Modern England Author Jesse Crossett Author Kate McPherson Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Unless otherwise noted, intellectual copyright in EMEE Anthology pages is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Jesse Crossett and Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Education Education Humanism Latin Literacy Literature and the Arts Printing Practices Published file. Updated metadata proofed updated author respStmt. Created File. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Jesse Crossett Jesse Crossett

Jesse Crossett was a student at Utah Valley University.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
Background

Prior to the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, reading and writing in England was a skill reserved for only the upper classes and ecclesiastical officials. During and following her reign, this privilege increasingly extended to more members of the middle classes and eventually even to small numbers of the poor. Many factors played a part in the spread of literacy in the period, including: The widespread use of the printing press The rise of Protestantism The humanist movement Endowments for education of the poor

The Printing Press

The invention and use of a moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany in the 1490s played a dynamic role in the spread of information in the early modern period. Though the press itself was instrumental, the technology that mattered was the implementation of movable typeface. By improving and combining many current technologies, Gutenberg was able to print books more quickly and print more copies of them. These breakthroughs allowed for more information to be created and spread in much less time and at a lower cost. These accomplishments were pivotal for the development of literacy all over Europe.

Protestantism

The use of moveable type became widespread just a few decades before the German priest Martin Luther sparked the most visible protests against the Catholic Church by objecting to many of its non-Biblical policies and practices. This movement became known as Protestantism and resulted in the fracturing of Western Christianity into two main branches, The Church of Rome (Catholicism) and Protestantism, which came to include the Lutheran Church, the Church of England, and other branches. Protestantism stressed the priesthood of all believers and so encouraged Christians to read the Bible in their own language, whereas Catholicism continued to use a Latin Bible. Desire to read the Bible increased instruction in literacy across the social spectrum.

Humanism

Humanism was a form of education that blossomed in Italy around the year 1200. This movement soon spread into elite circles all across Europe and was a key factor in Queen Elizabeth’s own education in the early 16th century. The humanist movement emphasized the teachings of ancient philosophers, modern and ancient languages, literature, and ideas. The movement valued human achievementwas and was meant to inspire individual freedom of thought, although it worked to harmonize these ideas with Christianity. This contrasted with the medieval belief that individual thought was a sign of jealousy and even heresy. The humanist mode of thinking inspired a desire to spread education and literacy to more people.

Endowments for the Poor

Prior to the implementation of endowments (scholarships), prospective pupils in formal education were limited to only those who could afford school tuition. As schools were given endowments by noblemen and wealthy merchants, it opened positions for students who would otherwise not be able to afford education. Local grammar schools would offer discounted positions to bright young boys who lived in the town. In addition to their rigorous studies, such pupils might have a requirement to complete additional chores at the school to help earn their award.

The curriculum taught in early modern English grammar schools was not universally accepted. Some argued that the emphasis on humanist teachings, including curriculum drawn from Greek and Latin literature, discredited the importance of mathematics and English. They contended that this type of schooling left many students inept in skills they needed for occupations, such as reading and writing in English. This debate about the prupose of education persists today, with some advocating for broadening of students’ minds with the liberal arts and others advocating for career preparation.

Key Print Sources Johnson, Genevieve Marie. The Invention of Reading and the Evolution of Text. Journal of Literacy and Technology, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, pp. 107-28. Potter, Ursula. To School or Not to School: Tudor Views on Education in Drama and Literature. Parergon, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 103–121.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Literacy. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/education/literacy.html. Accessed 13 Sep. 2018. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Printing Press. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press. Accessed 15 Sep. 2018. Egger, Christine A. Literacy and Libraries in Sixteenth Century England. Library History Round Table News and Notes. Emporia State University, 22 August 2016. https://lhrt.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/literacy-and-libraries-in-sixteenth-century-england1.pdf. Accessed 12 Sep. 2018. Grudin, Robert. Humanism. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism. Accessed 13 Sep. 2018. Kreis, Steven. Renaissance Humanism. The History Guide Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, 2016. https://www.historyguide.org/intellect/humanism.html. Accessed 12 Sep. 2018.