Shakespeare the Boy / With Sketches of the Home and School Life, Games and Sports, Manners, Customs and Folk-lore of the Time

by W. J. Rolfe

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school;"

and in Romeo and Juliet (ii. 1. 156) the significant similes:—

"Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks."

Gremio, in The Taming of the Shrew (iii. 2. 149), when asked if he has come from the church, replies: "As willingly as e'er I came from school."

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE.

Sooth to say, the schoolmasters of that time were not likely to be remembered with much favor by their pupils in after years. There is abundant testimony to the severity of their discipline in Ascham, Peacham, and other writers of the 16th century.

Thomas Tusser tells of his youthful experiences at Eton in verses that have been often quoted: