Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-04-23
HITS DETRACTORS
OF SHAKESPEARE
EIizabethan Scholar Says
Bard of Avon Obtained
Full Education.
William Shakespeare had all the edu-

William Shakespeare had all the edu-
cation necessary to write the plays at
tributed to him. The Bard Of Avon
was we'll qualified to do the work he
did Far from being an untutored rus
tic. he probably was as competent a
scholar as Bacon himself; Chaucer,
Spenser or even Milton. He had the
same training that they had, but he
made more Of his opportunities than
they did.
These were the opinions which DR..
George A. Plimpton of New York ex.
pressed last night to distinguished
audience gathered in the EliZabethan
Theater OF the Folger Shakespeare
Library to do honor to the poet In
whose memory the library building was
raised. Publisher. antiquarian, biblio-
phile, Dr. Plimpton has spent many
years in the study of Elizabethan books,
especially school texts, and the net re-
suit of his long investigation is YER
Gict for Shakespeare and the diScom-
future of those who would rob him OF
his fame.
The great bard, DR.. Plimpton de-
clared. almost certainly attended STRAIT
ford Grammar School between 1870 and
| 1880, perhaps as late as 1885. II so.
be was taught there by Walter Roche.
Samuel Hunt and Thomas Jenkins. all
university men. The speaker asserted.
| when Ben Jonson says that Snake
speare had small Latin and less Greek.
| he must be read with knowledge OF
| the fact that what would be small
| Latin In his day was very much more
| than Is mastered by the average Amer
| lean college graduate now. Since boys
| in country grammar schools were ex-
pected to speak Latin purely and
readily 1t seems we should seek far
| today for the few whom Jonson would
have regarded as good Latinists. The
! less Greek like the little Latin COM
pared with our day, may have been
good deal"
Dr. Plimpton told Of his study Of the
school text books of Shakespeare's
time. THE first book put into the
poets hands as child he said,
would have been a horn book, an aid
in the learning of the alphabet and
prayers.
I'VE may presume that the school at
Stratford had begun. like the rest, to
teach the boys to write. Shakespeare
used what was called the 'secretary's
hand 1t was derived from the first
| book on penmanship in the English Ian
guage. a work by John de Beau Chesne
and M. John Balloon, printed by
Thomas Vantronillier in London in
1870.
Shakespeare probably learned his
arithmetic from The Ground of Aries, ;
| by Robert Recorde, who taught mathe-
mates at Oxford The first edition
came out about 1912. and was the first
book on arithmetic printed in the Eng
| lish language.
| THE poets earliest Latin grammar
almost surely was that of William Lily,
headmaster of St. Pauls School. work
in which Colet and Erasmus had their
hands.
The Greek grammar Of Nicholas
ClenarduS was in use at Bangor and ST.
Bees, and there is no reason why 1t may
not have been studied at Stratford.
Fifth form boys at Harrow in Shake
speares day had Demosthenes. Isocrates,
Hesiod, Heliodorus and Dionysius Hall
carnasseus Grace.
las for rhetoric the poet probably
used the text of Thomas Wilson. There
is similarity between some of Falstaff's
speeches and some of those offered as
models in Wilson"
DR.. Plimpton predicated his address
on his own valuable collection of early
school books.
The plays of Shakespeare are full
Of classical illusions, all of which might
| refer to what he learned in the school
in Stratford and in his subsequent
readings OF his contemporaries. 1t
seems to me that Shakespeares school
ing must have resulted in considerably
more learning than the layman has
credited him with. His education how
ever cannot account for his success. 1t
contributed something. it was a solid
| foundation, a preparation for further
study; but although others. indeed, very
many. had the same opportunities, yet
we have only one Shakespeare