William Shakespeare Research Paper

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare in the Renaissance period in which Queen Elizabeth I reigned. His mother was born into one of the most prominent families in Warwickshire to a wealthy landowner, who left her money and land after his passing. John Shakespeare worked in many trades, but he was first a farmer, then a businessman who specialized in processing fine leather for glove-making. Later, he also held a number of government positions and became mayor in 1567. Although both of his parents were illiterate, their influence, particularly his father’s, allowed William Shakespeare to attend school free of charge. There are only speculations on how much education

The two prevailing belief systems in this era were the Catholic and Protestant religions, which often switched back and forth. From the age of five to seven, boys attended a petty school, which was run by an educated housewife who mainly taught manners and easy English in reading and writing. Students also learned the ways of being a good Christian through the Elizabethan book of “catechism”. In grammar school, students were taught by ushers, who were the older, experienced students in the school, in basic Latin using Lily’s Latin Grammar, which named as the only Latin grammar textbook to be used by Henry VII. Students began their learning with parts of speech, then the construction of sentences, and later, translations from Latin to English and reversed. As they grew older, they transferred to learning from the Masters and started to read and analyze the texts of classical authors and dramatists such as Ovid, Virgil, Cicero and Seneca. Elizabethan schools ran on a strict system with constant examinations, harsh punishments, and students attending school for two thousand hours per year, which is even longer than the hours of the modern school