I'm not convinced about this notion of illiterate working classes. Certainly there were large numbers of illiterates in the past but when you consider that reading the bible was widespread, and attendance at church with the use of the Book of Common Prayer and Hymnals equally common, it seems a bit condescending to reckon that illiteracy at its most basic was a universal norm. There have been points in history where religious observance has been a political necessity and its associated literacy a matter of survival. Couple this with the simple fact that broadsides simply wouldn't have sold in such huge numbers to a mostly illiterate populace and the ability to read was probably a norm. But…our definition of literacy includes writing and this was a much rarer skill, confined, one suspects to a minority who were probably of higher income. Note the number of deaths by 'penknife' in ballads and you get a picture of writing as an upper class skill. These tools, ostensibly for sharpening quills for writing, are frequently described as 'hanging down by the knee' and such ostentation might be construed as a statement of status by virtue of literacy beyond mere 'reading'.