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various phases of school life at the time Shakspere was born, some of which we shall notice in passing.
According to Leach, Badger entered Winchester at the age of ten in 1561. Since he was promoted to the upper school in 1563 after only two years, he evidently had the equivalent of at least one form at entrance. Being ten, he ought to have been eligible for upper school at once. He entered upper school at twelve, a year or two late. When his notebook ends after Easter, 1567, he was about sixteen, and had been three-quarters of a year in the sixth and presumably the final form. It was nearly two years later that he entered university. Leach implies that Badger had spent these years at Winchester, since he says that he spent altogether above eight years there. But I do not know on what evidence Leach makes this statement or certain others which I have accepted on his authority.
We may now turn to the various indications of studies and school practice which are embodied in these dictates only a few years before Shakspere entered school. Johnson welcomed the fourth form with a playful speech on the present hardships of the boys away from Winchester (2r).6 As we learn from a dictate a few days later, these hardships were occasioned by the plague, the causes of which are discussed by Johnson, who was a physician (i Ir). In his second dictate, Johnson wished that he had the fabulous charms of various characters so that he might teach the boys with like power. With the third, he settled down to his routine of dictates in prose and verse covering a multitude of subjects, usually interesting and seldom completely boresome. Frequently, he utilized these dictates to give supplementary instruction, so that we get numerous hints as to the studies of the boys. The fourth dictate (310 begins with the statement, "Si violandum est ius (inquit ille) propter regnu violandu est." This is the much-quoted statement of Cicero from De Ofciis. John-son grants the boys three things but on three conditions, the third of which is that they refrain from the maternal tongue (4v). The con-cessions were due to the disturbed conditions caused by the plague. Johnson gives the boys a succession of distichs, varying the theme of, "May the earth lie lightly on your bones that the dogs may easily dig them up," as expressed by Martial, Alciat, Sleidan, and himself. He then commands the boys to try their hands, "Vos experimeta date" (7v). No doubt the subject of this theme was "grateful to
6 My work has been done from a photostat procured by the Library of the University of Illinois from the original in the British Museum, MS. Add. 4379, to whose authorities I am thus deeply indebted. I have also examined the original.
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