Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/161

Rh He went to the parish school for a short time and learned English, some scraps of Greek and Latin, and a little mathematics. He read everything, too, which came within his eager grasp.

Of course there were not as many books made in many years then as are printed now every year in New York; but there were places in London where were published little pamphlets in paper covers, which were sold quite cheaply for the times. These tracts, or pamphlets, were generally translations from French and Italian tales, or legends, chronicles extracted from old English history, and sometimes translations from Greek or Latin poetry. These books, which look very coarse and rude in their paper and printing, if we see them to-day and compare them with our beautiful books, were the popular reading of the people of that age. They were called chapbooks (cheap-books), and the men who sold them were chap-men, which is the same, very likely, as our word shop-man.

It is very probable that some of these books found their way to Stratford, and that little Will Shakespeare occasionally got one to read. Perhaps some travelling peddler, who came there to tell his wares, had a few such stray copies in his pack, or the parish schoolmaster may have owned a few odd volumes. What a delight it