////The flaw in your reasoning is that a man of voracious curiosity would have to be formally educated in order to exercise a brilliant imagination and a mastery of phrase. Your notion that he hadn't been to school for "that long" is also slanted away from the actual framework of the period. Bear in mind this was an age when men were landowners and husbands at the age of fifteen.///

I'm not saying that humble origins guarantees one thing or another. Lots of people of humble backgrounds went to great things. I'm saying when you take everything we truly know about the life of William Shakespeare and try to match it to the greatest bard of the English language, it's a bit of a stretch--like pulling your lower lip over your head.