Shakespeare A to Z | Education and Literacy
Shakespeare’s audience was raised in a culture in which language played an important role. Most theatergoers, from the poor spectators standing on the ground to the wealthy nobles sitting in the box seats, were literate enough to appreciate the beautiful language in his plays. Aside from their shared basic literacy—the ability to read and write—however, the poor and the wealthy had very different educational backgrounds.
THE PETTY SCHOOL. In the late 1500s attendance at educational institutions was purely voluntary. At about age five or six, children went to a petty school,...
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