When once Mr. Greenwood deems it "highly probable" that Will had four
or five years of education at a Latin school, Will has as much of
"grounding" in Latin, I think, as would account for all the knowledge
of the Roman tongue which he displays. His amount of teaching at
school would carry and tempt even a boy who was merely clever, and
loved to read romantic tales and comic plays, into Ovid and Plautus--
English books being to him not very accessible.
Here I may speak from my own memories, for though utterly idle where
set school tasks were concerned, I tried very early to worry the
sense out of Aristophanes--because he was said to contain good
reading.
To this amount of taste and curiosity, nowise unexampled in an
ordinary clever boy, add GENIUS, and I feel no difficulty as to
Will's "learning," such as, at best, it was. "The Stratfordian,"
says Mr. Greenwood, "will ingeminate 'Genius! Genius!'" {55a} I DO
say "Genius," and stand by it. The ordinary clever boy, in the
supposed circumstances, could read and admire his Ovid (though
Shakespeare used cribs also), the man of genius could write Venus and
Adonis.
Had I to maintain the Baconian hypothesis, I would not weigh heavily
on bookless Will's rusticity and patois. Accepting Ben Jonson's
account of his "excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle
expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility .
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