Childhood And Boyhood Of Shakespeare

We know next to nothing of William Shakespeare’s childhood and boyhood. It may however, reasonably be supposed that he went to the grammar school, of his town, where he learnt, among other things, some little Latin.

When William was about thirteen years old, John Shakespeare the father, seems to have got into difficulties, and had to sell some of the property of his wife. Still there were law-suits against him, and a fine was imposed. For fear of arrest, he stopped even to attend the church for which he was prosecuted in 1592. He has stopped attending the meetings of the town council from 1577, and had in 1587 lost his aldermanship because of continued absence.

From this is assumed by Rowe that Shakespeare had to leave school at about the age of thirteen. But from what we know of Shakespeare from this time onwards we may assume that he had learnt as much as a municipal school could have taught in his time.