. William Shakespeare; poet, dramatist, and man . statement that he understood Latinpretty well is abundantly verified by the plays;they also furnish evidence that he understoodItalian and French. That he studied the Bible, either in the Genevanversion or in the revision of 1568, is equally appar-ent. His references to incidents in Biblical historyand his use of Biblical phrases suggest a familiarityacquired in boyhood rather than a habit of read-ing in maturity. The direct suggestions of theinfluence of the Bible are numerous; but there isalso the impression of a rich and freque
. William Shakespeare; poet, dramatist, and man . statement that he understood Latinpretty well is abundantly verified by the plays;they also furnish evidence that he understoodItalian and French. That he studied the Bible, either in the Genevanversion or in the revision of 1568, is equally appar-ent. His references to incidents in Biblical historyand his use of Biblical phrases suggest a familiarityacquired in boyhood rather than a habit of read-ing in maturity. The direct suggestions of theinfluence of the Bible are numerous; but there isalso the impression of a rich and frequent use ofBiblical wisdom and imagery. Mr. Locke Rich- 48 SHAKESPEARE ardson has suo-orested that when Falstaff babbledof green fields his memory was going back tothe days when, as a schoolboy, the Twenty-thirdPsalm was often in his ears or on his lips; andthere are many places in the plays where Shake-speare seems to be remembering something whichhe learned from the Bible in youth. No collec-tion of books could have brought him richer. IHE GUILD CHAMBER IN THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. material for his view of life and for his art, notonly as regards its content but its form. The Grammar School, in which Cicero andViro^il have been taus^ht in unbroken successionsince Shakespeares time, was a free school, takingboys of the neighbourhood from seven years up-wards, and keeping them on the benches with gen-erous disregard of hours. There were holidays,however, and there was time for punting on the BIRTH AND BREEDING 49 river, for rambles across country, and for thosenoisy games, prolonged far into the evening by thelong English twilight, which make the meadowsacross the Avon as vocal as the old graveyard aboutthe church is reposeful and silent. Boys in Shakespeares station in life rarely wentto school after their fourteenth year, and the grow-ing financial embarrassments of John Shakespeareprobably took his son out of the Grammar Schoola year earlier. The tide of prosperity had beg
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectshakesp, bookyear1901
