Because his father was a dignitary of Stratford, ie, Alderman, William Shakespeare was afforded an education at the KIng's Grammar School in his home town. At the age of seven, he would begin his day's schooling, and at the age of nine, he was introduced to Latin by his tutor, Simon Hunt, who impressed upon Shakespeare's mother the necessity of using a "crib", so, she bought him Ovid's "Metamorphoses", a book he kept with him all his life. At the age of fourteen, the boy was pulled out of school by his father, to work in the family shop, and learn the trade of "wittawer", or, worker in fine leather. Had he stayed at school, he may well have gone on to university, for Jonson tells us that Shakespeare "Knew small Latin and less Greek", but the "small Latin" he knew, would be quite enough today for a Classics graduate, indeed "Titus Andronicus" was composed purely in Latin.
