In September, 1567, Robert Perrot, a brewer, John Shakespeare, and Ralph Cawdrey, a butcher, were nominated for the office of the High Bailiff, or, as that dignitary was subsequently called, the Mayor. The last-named candidate was the one who was elected. It is upon this occasion that the poet’s father is alluded to for the first time in the public records as briefly as “Mr. Shakspeyr.” He had previously therein mentioned either as John Shakespeare, or briefly as Shakespeare, and the addition of the title was in those days no small indication of an advance in social position. There is, indeed, no doubt that, during the early years of Shakespeare’s boyhood, his father was one of the leading men in Stratford-on-Avon. On September 4, 1568, John Shakespeare,—“Mr. Shakspeyr,” as he is called in that day’s record,—was chosen High Bailiff, attaining thus the most distinguished official position in the town after an active connection with its affairs during the previous eleven years. The poet had entered his fifth year in the previous month of April, the family in Henley Street now consisting of his parents, his brother Gilbert, who was very nearly two years old, and himself.

It must have been somewhere about this period, 1568, that Shakespeare entered into the mysteries of the hornbook and the A. B. C. Although both his parents were absolutely illiterate, they had the sagacity to appreciate the importance of an education for their son, and the poet, somehow or other, was taught, to read and write, the necessary preliminaries for admission into the Free School. There were few persons at that time at Stratford-on-Avon capable of initiating him even into these preparatory accomplishments, but John Shakespeare, in his official position, could hardly have had much difficulty in finding a suitable instructor. There was for instance, Higford, the Steward of the Court of Record, and the person who transcribed some of his accounts when he was the borough Chamberlain; but it as likely as not that the poet received the first rudiments of education from older boys who were some way advanced in their school career.

below, þe Tragicall Historie of HAMLET, Prince of Denmarke.
Hamlet imagines a jawbone as Cain’s, recalling a scene from The Mysteries.

On: Why this came to be •
On: Room for Shakespeare publishing in the present day •
On: The Life of Shakespeare, part one: edge of town •
On: The Life of Shakespeare, part two: a star is born •
On: The Life of Shakespeare, part three: the mysteries •
On: The Life of Shakespeare, part four: haram, horum •
On: Shakespeare's Sources •
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