Whoever “Shakespeare” was, it is quite clear from the linguistic cornucopia in the plays and poetry that he must have been a living, walking encyclopaedia on the subject of Greek and Roman prosody. Nearly every play and poem attributed to “Shakespeare” has a vast number of literary and rhetorical techniques, some rare, some extremely obscure and others which would require a classical education in some college or university and far removed from the sleepy, rural district of Stratford-upon-Avon. It appears that William Shakspere was born during the first onset of plague in 1564 and a short history of the town between the 16th-17th centuries entitled “A Market Town In Adversity” (J.M. Martin 1982) states:

At Stratford things got much worse after 1594 when new calamities struck the town: the first devastating fires in 1594-5; harvest failure leading to famine in November 1596; and finally the return of plague to the town in 1604. Like the ruinous rates and the immorality of the time these new misfortunes were blamed firmly upon the poorer classes of the town. So the fires it was alleged 'had their beginning in poor tenements and cottages which were thatched with straw of which sort very many have been lately erected';" a danger greatly' magnified by the widespread conversion of stables and outbuildings into dwellings for 'strangers and inmates'. In their listing of the inadequacies and misdemeanours of the poor inhabitants and of the coercive measures

taken to deal with them, the Corporation sounded a note of real anxiety. And this impression receives support from some occupational figures gleaned from the registers which throw some light on the social polarization under way: they show that 57 of 179 grooms staying on in Stratford between 1597 and 1624 were either labourers or paupers.

The absurd idea that a recently married eighteen year old boy was inclined to pursue the luxury of an elevated education reserved mainly for the élite or that beyond his financial means or mental capacity is highly unlikely. Nevertheless, in the works of the pseudonymous “William Shakespeare” we discover the use of Acyrologia: (ak-ir-o-lo'-gi-a) which is an unintended use of the wrong word often by someone attempting to sound educated or erudite. In “Much Ado About Nothing”, Act 4. Scene 2.38. Dogberry used the word “redemption” instead of “damnation.” The modern term for this linguistic slip is now known as malapropism. Although in essence a type of euphemism, malapropism is a neologism inspired by the name of the character Mrs. Malaprop, in Richard Sheridan's "The Rivals", 1775:

Dogberry:

Yea, marry, let them come before me.

[Conrade and Borachio are brought forward.]

What is your name, friend?

Borachio:

Borachio.

Dogberry:

Pray, write down “Borachio.”—Yours, sirrah?

Conrade:

I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade.

Dogberry:

O, villain! Thou wilt be condemned

into everlasting redemption for this!

 

And the use of Adnominatio (ad-no-mi-na'-ti-o) a branch of polytopon is the assigning to a proper name of its literal or homophonic meaning:

Falstaff: Is thy name Mouldy?

Mouldy: Yea, an't please you.

Falstaff: ‘Tis the more time thou wert used.

Shallow: Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith!

Things that go mouldy due to lack of use, neglect or regular consumption: “Very singular good! in faith, well said, Sir John, very well said.” (Henry IV Part 2, 3.2.96.) Which is related to paronomasia and polyptoton.

Falstaff:

Fie, this is hot weather, gentlemen. Have you

provided me here half a dozen sufficient men?

Shallow:

Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit?

[They sit at a table.]

Falstaff:

Let me see them, I beseech you.

Thy mother’s son! Like enough, and thy father’s shadow.

So in alphabetical succession we arrive at Adynaton (a-dyn'-a-ton) from the Greek meaning ‘not possible’ which being an extreme form of hyperbole in which an exaggeration could not possibly happen in real terms eg:

 “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (Macbeth, 2.2.78)

And in the Merchant of Venice (2.2.181) Bassianio accuses Gratiano of wise-acreing:

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice.

His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff:

you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them,

they are not worth the search.

Meanwhile from the Latin meaning ‘argument’ altercatio signifies a rapid exchange of statements/denials, questions and replies or refutations which is common in stage drama, dialogue or rhetorical debates (see also stychomythia). A good example is from Measure For Measure (Act 1, scene 2):

Mistress Overdone:

How now! what's the news with you?

Pompey:

Yonder man is carried to prison.

Mistress Overdone:

Well; what has he done?

Pompey:

A woman.

Mistress Overdone:

But what's his offence?

Pompey:

Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

Mistress Overdone:

What, is there a maid with child by him?

Pompey:

No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have

not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Mistress Overdone:

What proclamation, man?

Pompey:

All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

Mistress Overdone:

And what shall become of those in the city?

Pompey:

They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too,

but that a wise burgher put in for them.

Mistress Overdone:

But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

Pompey:

To the ground, mistress.

Mistress Overdone:

Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!

What shall become of me?

The technique of Alliosis (al'-e-o'-sis) is the use of alternatives or choices in a balanced and parallel structure. However, such a structure may result in a false dichotomy but it can create a cleverly balanced and artistic sentence.

“Better it were a brother died at once,

Than that a sister, by redeeming him,

Should die forever.” (Measure for Measure, Act 2. Scene 4.95.)

We must also automatically assume he was naturally familiar with Alliteration (al-lit'-er-a'-shen) which  is the repetition of an initial, stressed consonant sound for two or more words. “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought…” Sonnet 30. Alliteration is different from consonance, which is the repetition of a consonant sound on stressed or unstressed syllables that are not always at the beginnings of words. The repetition of “s” sounds, alliterative or consonant, is called sibilance.

One of Shakespeare’s most frequent themes is appearance versus reality or a contradiction in those elements. This theme manifests itself in different ways and for different purposes. In “The Merchant of Venice” (2.2.181), Bassanio says to Gratiano:

Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice—

Parts that become thee happily enough,

And in such eyes as ours appear not faults.

But it is also found in Sonnet 74:

But be contented when that fell arrest

Without all bail shall carry me away,

My life hath in this line some interest,

Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.

When thou reviewest this, thou dost review

The very part was consecrate to thee.

The earth can have but earth, which is his due;

And above all the author of “Shakespeare” is easily led into making topical or allegorical allusions. Allusion (al'-lu-shun) is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, topical, literary or political significance. A genuine understanding of these allusions and their specific targets for satire or ridicule are extremely important in establishing ‘who Shakespeare really was’ and what kind of education he received, and how close he was to the Elizabethan court.

“I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; / I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;  /I'll play the orator as well as Nestor…” (Henry VI Part 3, 3.2.126)

Then we also find the use of Ambage (am'-bij) which is the excessive use of words in an ambiguous or indirect manner.

“But be contented when that fell arrest

Without all bail shall carry me away,

My life hath in this line some interest,

Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.” Sonnet 74.

Ambage is not unlike circumlocution, in that both use excessive words and are indirect, but a circumlocution circles around the meaning and an ambage creates ambiguity.  See also periphrasis.

Needless to say the author was simply obsessed with the use Ambiguity in all its literary forms (am-bee-gyuu'-ə-tē), an expression that has more than one meaning whether that is pronunciation, character, or plot. Puns use ambiguity for humorous intent as when Mercutio plays on the meaning of ‘grave’ when he says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” (Romeo and Juliet, 3.1.93)

Mercutio:

I am hurt.

A plague o’ both houses! I am sped.

Is he gone and hath nothing?

Benvolio:

What, art thou hurt?

Mercutio:

Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.

Where is my page?—Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

[Page exits]

No, ’tis not so deep as a well,

Among the many poetic and rhetorical devices employed by Shakespeare in plays and poetry are the use of amplificátio, whereby he explores the numerous ways an argument can be expanded upon or an idea or proposition can be ‘amplified’. A simple example can be found in “As You Like It” Act 1, scene 1 in an exchange between Oliver and Charles:

Oliver:

Good Monsieur Charles, what's the new news at the

new court?

Charles:

There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news:

that is, the old duke is banished by his younger

brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords

have put themselves into voluntary exile with him,

whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke;

therefore he gives them good leave to wander.

Which Charles Dickens plagiarised and expanded upon in “Our Mutual Friend” with the following extract:

“Everything about the Veneerings was spick and brand new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with their having a brand-new baby...”

Amplification or amplificatio (am-plee-fə-kā'-shən) is an elaborate decoration of an argument to suggest copiousness or intensify emotional impact as in this example from Henry VIth Part 3, Act 5, scene 6.

“Ay, my good lord—“my lord,” I should say rather.

’Tis sin to flatter; “good” was little better:

“Good Gloucester” and “good devil” were alike,

And both preposterous: therefore, not “good lord.”

Amplification (Greek: auxesis) is an example of augmentation as one can discern from the following:

Lucio, within

Ho, peace be in this place!

Isabella:

Who’s that which calls?

Nun:

It is a man’s voice. Gentle Isabella,

Turn you the key and know his business of him.

You may; I may not. You are yet unsworn.

When you have vowed, you must not speak with men

But in the presence of the Prioress. [Measure for Measure Act 1 Scene 4 Line 6]

This is without doubt self-evident in the Sonnets and several of his plays. We often find the use of anadiplósis, whereby the word ending one line will begin on the next line as in Sonnet #90:

Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;

Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,

Or when Anadiplosis (an'-a-di-plo'-sis) is the repetition of a word or phrase that ends one clause and begins the next. “Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument?” (As You Like It, Act 1. Scene 2.31). Extended anadiplosis is called gradatio. Anadiplosis is an example of arrangement, and repetition.

Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

Celia:

Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune

from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be

bestowed equally.

Rosalind:

I would we could do so, for her benefits are

mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman

doth most mistake in her gifts to women.

Celia:

‘Tis true, (As You Like It Act 1Scene 2 Line 31)

Repetition in all its forms whether that be alliterative, rhyming or with regular metre. Among those numerous repetitive techniques (repetio) employed are anáphora, the repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive clauses as in the case of Sonnet #66 take note of the first and penultimate line.

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,

As to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,

And strength by limping sway disabled

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill:

Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,

Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

One of Shakespeare’s most frequent themes is appearance versus reality as well as the paranormal or supernatural. This theme manifests itself in different ways for different purposes. The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences:

“O, cursèd be the hand that made these holes;

 Cursèd the heart that had the heart to do it;

Cursèd the blood that let this blood from hence.” (Richard IIIrd, Act 1. scene 2.1 )

See also mesodiplosis.

The repetition of words in the middle, and epistrophe, the repetition of words at the end of a line. While one of Shakespeare’s most frequent themes is appearance versus reality. This theme manifests itself in different ways for different purposes. In “The Merchant of Venice” (Act 2. Scene 2.181), Bassanio says to Gratiano:

Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice—

Parts that become thee happily enough,

And in such eyes as ours appear not faults.

The linguistic term Anapodoton (an'-a-po'-do-ton) is a deliberate sentence fragment:

“No, not an oath! If not the face of men,

The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse—

If these be motives weak, break off betimes,

And every man hence to his idle bed;” (Julius Caesar, Act 2. Scene 1.124)

Anapodoton is an example of Omission or subtraction eg:

O, for a muse of fire that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention!

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

Can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt? (Henry Vth, Act 1, Scene Prologue Line 1)

However, repetition can be expressed in rhyme, both internal, beginning and end of a sentence, within a whole verse or stanza or as sound through the use of alliteration. It might consist of sounds (onomatopoeia), syllables, words, phrases, stanzas, metrical patterns, ideas, and allusions. The following are some good examples of repetitive patterns in speech:

Shallow:

Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with

you, coz; marry, this, coz: there is, as 'twere, a

tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh

here. Do you understand me? (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1, scene 1)

Parolles:

Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out

of fashion: richly suited, but unsuitable: just

like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not

now. Your date is better in your pie and your

porridge than in your cheek; and your virginity,

your old virginity, is like one of our French

withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry,

'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better;

marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will you anything with it? (All's Well That Ends Well, Act 1, scene 1)

Queen Gertrude:

If it be, why seems it so particular with thee?

Hamlet:

Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems'.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,

Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,

Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,

That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play:

But I have that within which passeth show;

These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 2)

And let us not forget the use of Analogy (a-nal'-o-gee) which is a comparison between two situations for the purpose of explanation or clarification. “What's in a name?

“That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd.” (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2. Scene 2.36.) Analogy is an example of verbal comparison.

Menenius Agrippa:

There was a time when all the body’s members

Rebell’d against the belly; thus accus’d it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I’ th’ midst a’ th’ body, idle and unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labor with the rest, where th’ other instruments

Did see and hear, devise, instruct, [CoriolanusAct 1 Scene 1 Line 98:]

Whereas Anastrophe (an-as'-tro-phee) is a type of hyperbaton in which usually only a single word is misplaced or reversed from its expected grammatical order. Anastrophe is an example of arrangement but most often the adjective appears after the noun when we expect to find it before the noun eg:

“Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,

By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,

To set my brother Clarence and the King

In deadly hate.” (Richard III, Act 1. Scene 1.1.)

Richard the Third’s “Now is the winter of our discontent” is resonate with or as familiar as Hamlet’s well-known soliloquy: “To be, or not to be” or Mark Antony’s address to the crowd: “Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears”. But none of these three passages could be defined as a dramatic dialogue because Mark Antony rhetorically addresses a large homogenous Roman crowd in an extended speech. "Richard IIIrd" and "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" reflect deeply on themselves in a soliloquy while we the audience are listening in on their personal thoughts:

 [Reads the Quote:]

 Saturninus and his followers at one door, and

 Bassianus and his followers at another door, with

 other Romans, Drums, and Trumpets.

Saturninus:

Noble patricians, patrons of my right,

Defend the justice of my cause with arms.

And countrymen, my loving followers,

Plead my successive title with your swords.

I am his firstborn son that was the last

That wore the imperial diadem of Rome.([Titus Andronicus Act 1, Scene 1, Line 1)

Whereas Antanaclasis (an'-ta-na-cla'-sis) is the repetition of a word with a shift of meaning. It is related to adnominatio, paronomasia and polyptoton. Antanaclasis is an example of repetition as in these lines from “Romeo and Juliet” Act 1, Scene Prologue Line 1:

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life

How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st

Upon that blessèd wood whose motion sounds

With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway’st

The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand.

From my own research into the topic only those schools situated in very large towns or cities would have had the facilities (private, collegiate or ecclesiastical libraries) and highly trained teachers to instruct pupils to this high degree of education in English and foreign literature as well as languages. The small rural town he emerged from had a population of some 2,500 and the only poets to emerge from Warwickshire in the 15th-16th century per se were Fulke Greville II and Michael Drayton. Although from Warwickshire Fulke Greville was educated at Shrewsbury School on the same day as another well-known poet, Sir Phillip Sidney in 1564. He later matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge, his tutor being Thomas Legge, a dramatist and academic from Norwich who was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Michael Drayton on the other hand was a commoner born at Hartshill, and was brought up as a page to Sir Henry Goodere whose daughter, Anne was married to Sir Henry Rainsford who became a patron of Drayton’s literary endeavours. Among his other patrons during the reign of James 1st were the Princes Henry and Charles and the Countess of Bedford.

During “Shakespeare’s” lifetime the population of Oxford or Cambridge would have been somewhere in the region of 8-10,000 and London boasted a population of some 120,000 inhabitants. The number and quality of those schools would have been proportionate and dependent to their local population, their patronage and regional economic status and Stratford had only one grammar school (Edward VIth) situated above the Guildhall that could accommodate about 30 pupils. As far as we can discern but from very little available corroborating evidence there is no supporting facts to definitively say that William Shakspere had an education. Firstly, the school records do not exist for his early childhood probably due to social disruption caused by the onset of plague (1564), illegal land enclosures and two fires that ravaged Stratford-upon-Avon from 1592-93. The “Shakespeare” academic F.E. Halliday in his biography mentions two teachers from the school, Simon Hunt, a devout Catholic and a Welshman, Thomas Jenkins and suggests he would have read the Geneva Bible, John Lily’s Latin Grammar, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, some plays from Vergil, Plautus and Seneca but declines to divulge how he managed to learn French, Italian, Latin and Greek. Aside from the fact that as a playwright and poet “Shakespeare” would have had a library consisting of some 3,000 rare and unobtainable books (See “Shakespeare’s Literary Sources”). However, in his last will and testament there is no mention of an extensive library of books and as the expense alone would have probably bankrupted the son of a farmer (John Shakspere) who was having difficulty paying the loans he had accrued and his own mortgage on the family home. Assuming rightly or wrongly that he attended a grammar school he would have had some 4 years of secondary education the curriculum of which should include reading, writing, mathematics, English and Latin. Additionally, he would have spent some extra time to study the basics of geography, history, theology, and natural history not to mention of course a thorough and in-depth study of astronomy. Hardly enough time indeed to include the study of Greek and Roman prosody as well without some additional private tuition in those subjects. Having left secondary education at the age of sixteen, some two years later he had inadvertently made Anne of Shottery pregnant with child and was obliged to seek marriage and the inevitable demands of childcare and parental responsibility. Which suggests a lack not only of a classical education but a lack of sex education particularly in prophylactics and when or how to use them!