Facts & Theories on Shakespeare's Education Those who find it impossible to simply accept that somebody they decide to use be a simple country boy may be the greatest literary genius with the English language often talk of him to be uneducated. Although very few
facts about Shakespeare are known for sure, nothing might be more mistaken. It's true which he didn't head to university. He may did - probably Oxford - while he came from a prominent Stratford family, descended, on his mother's side, from aristocracy - the Ardens of Park Hall.
However, just like he was reaching school-leaving age - fourteen, age of which other boys went along to university - his father's business was failing. That has been possibly linked to John Shakespeare's unwavering Catholicism, which was an unsafe position to take at that time and at the mercy of discrimination and also persecution. We don't know much concerning the detail nevertheless the fact is that young William had to be withdrawn from soccer practice.
So, like other Stratford boys, he attended the King Edward IV Grammar School where he previously the conventional national curriculum of times. Taught by Ushers (junior masters) or older pupils, the boys learnt the rudiments of Latin first, with all the Tudor text-book known as Lily's Latin Grammar.
This short introduction to grammar, authored by William Lily, have been authorized by Henry VIII since the sole Latin grammar textbook for use in schools. The very first year of Elizabethan education would have contains learning elements of speech as well as verbs and nouns; the second year the rules of construction and forming sentences and also the third year could have focused on English-Latin and Latin-English translations Shakespeare would have had to be properly versed in Latin!
In the ages of 10 the boys would depart the Ushers to become taught by the Masters. They began studying the works of the great classical authors and dramatists, including Ovid, Plautus, Horace, Virgil, Cicero and Seneca. They studied the histories of Caesar, Sallust and Livy too, for moral example was believed relevant to life in Elizabethan England and so a part of their education.
People who complain about Shakespeare's insufficient education are ignorant or ill-informed. If there's something we could say with factual accuracy about William Shakespeare is that he must certainly have been an intelligent pupil. It's also evident how the King Edward 1V Grammar School in Stratford was obviously a excellent school. The salaries were £10 annually to get a Master and £40 per year for the Headmaster and these were on par with probably the most prominent schools in England. The institution therefore attracted excellent teachers and 2 of these rose to great heights by founding colleges. Richard Fox, who was simply appointed master at King Edward IV Grammar school in 1497, later became principal minister under Edward VII as Bishop of Winchester and founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Another master, William Smyth, founded Brasenose College. Two Oxford graduates, Ben Hunt and Thomas Jenkins, were employed as Masters of Elizabethan Education at the time William Shakespeare attended the King Edward IV Grammar school and might have taught the young William Shakespeare. It's clear how the education he received at the the King Edward IV Grammar school was of the high quality.