What would life be like in Shakespeare's time for a 12 year old boy?

Answer 1

People used to go to the theatres a lot if they could afford it, as they had no Xbox 360 or DS so that was there form of entertainment. Also the plague was around at this time so lots of people were ill. William Shakespeare was very famous during this period of history as he wrote,directed and acted in plays.

Answer 2

It was pretty rough. If you were from a poor family you were probably out working the same as an adult as soon as you could. Girls learned household duties from their mothers and were married when they were able to bear children.

Girls from middle class families like Shakespeare's mostly had the same training but married a little later, in their twenties. Sometimes they got to go to school. More boys went to school. Schools were no picnic--classes went from 6 am to 6 pm and sometimes into the evening, with two short breaks, six days a week, sitting on wooden benches, memorizing (mostly) Latin grammar while being frequently beaten. When you were done school you could be apprenticed to a trade or business.

The nobility had an even more strenuous course of study, both boys and girls: Queen Elizabeth studied etiquette from the moment she could comprehend, and then under a series of private tutors was taught languages classic and modern, and penmanship as well as dancing and music. Language study involved reading difficult texts and translating them. By the time she was in her early teens Elizabeth was fluent in French, Italian and Latin and was passbly good with Greek, and had read such works as Cicero and Livy in the original. Boys' studies would of course also include Martial Arts, as noblemen, it was expected, might be required to lead troops in battle.