But, if he were educated at Stratford Free School (of which there is
no documentary record), according to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps "he was
removed from school long before the usual age," "in all probability"
when "he was about thirteen" (an age at which some boys, later well
known, went up to their universities). If we send him to school at
seven or so, "it appears that he could only have enjoyed such
advantages as it may be supposed to have provided for a period of
five or six years at the outside. He was then withdrawn, and, as it
seems, put to calf-slaughtering." {16a}

What the advantages may have been we try to estimate later.

Mr. Greenwood, with Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, thinks that Will "could
have learned but little there. No doubt boys at Elizabethan grammar
schools, if they remained long enough, had a good deal of Latin
driven into them. Latin, indeed, was the one subject that was
taught; and an industrious boy who had gone through the course and
attained to the higher classes would generally be able to write fair
Latin prose. But he would learn very little else" (except to write
fair Latin prose?). "What we now call 'culture' certainly did not
enter into the 'curriculum,' nor 'English,' nor modern languages, nor
'literature.'" {17a} Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says that "removed
prematurely from school, residing with illiterate relatives in a
bookless neighbourhood, thrown into the midst of occupations adverse
to scholastic progress--it is difficult to believe that when he first
left Stratford he was not all but destitute of polished
accomplishments." {17b} Mr. Greenwood adds the apprenticeship to a
butcher or draper, but doubts the poaching, and the frequent
whippings and imprisonments, as in the story told by the Rev. R.
Davies in 1708. {17c}