Pick up king literarily before knight (5)
I believe the answer is:
learn
'pick up' is the definition.
('learn' can be a synonym of 'pick up')
'king literarily before knight' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation for rex).
'literarily' becomes 'lea' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'knight' becomes 'n' (chess).
'r' after 'lea' is 'lear'.
'lear'+'n'='LEARN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for learn that I've seen before include "Be educated" , "Acquire knowledge or skill" , "Acquire information" , "Become aware of" , "Read up on" .)