William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (威廉 莎士比亚)
britishcouncil.org

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William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, in England. His father, John, was a glove-maker. His mother, Mary, was a farmer’s daughter. He had two older sisters, two younger sisters and three younger brothers.

William probably studied Latin, Greek and history, and left school when he was 14 or 15. Three years later he married Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter called Susanna and twins named Judith and Hamnet. Sometime before 1590 he left Stratford and went to London, the capital city of England.

London’s first theatre opened in 1576. Shakespeare worked in London as an actor and then started writing plays too. In 1593 the plague, a terrible disease, killed thousands of people and theatres were closed. During this time William started to write poems instead of plays. His short poems are called sonnets.

Shakespeare helped build a new theatre called The Globe. It opened in 1599. It was round and had space for 3000 people. At The Globe some people stood in front of the stage and others had seats. The audience shouted, clapped, booed and laughed while they watched plays. Musicians created special noises to make the plays more exciting and they had a cannon to make big bangs! No women acted in Shakespeare’s time: men and boys played all the parts.

Shakespeare wrote comedies with happy endings, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He wrote tragedies which had sad endings, like Romeo and Juliet. His history plays are about kings and queens, like Henry V. Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, maybe more. He loved language and invented new words and expre ssions that we still use today.

William became rich and famous. He had houses in London and in Stratford. He died when he was 52 on 23 April 1616. His plays and poetry were very popular 400 years ago and they are still popular today. People all over the world love his work because he wrote wonderful stories about very interesting people.

国外网友评论 0人跟帖    3174人参与

MissRubyEnvironment
Interesting! Roald Dahl is a famous writer in my Country(India)
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OpalScientistLight
Cool
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CreamSong60
I like Shakespeare,he is great
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NiceMountain30
it was'nt that hard!
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LordRed7000
nice one
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GreenSnowTrophy
tran dang khoa is a famous writter in my country, Vietnam.
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PurpleSong4
I agree with you
How old are you?
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YellowAppleTaxi
sooper
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SilverDinosaurBunny
Great story! I was able to learn so many things about shakesphere!
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SleepyPaper7000
is good and i like shakespear
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KingDragonBamboo
Very Nice And Interesting Story!
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PaperFolkPiano
Very interesting! This has made me more curious about William Shakespeare. I haven't heard of one of his poems but I will one day!
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AlwaysCatHieroglyph
goooooood and very interesting story. thanks
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MisterNiceRadio
Wow!
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QueenSong60
İ know poems of Shakespeare:I am Nobody
Fear no more etc
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KingDragonBamboo
WOW, very good and a beautiful story!
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QueenSong60
 Hello
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DJRhythmSandwich
wow!
[ 0 ] [ 0 ]
CookingAntTown
Very nice story. Thank you .
[ 0 ] [ 0 ]
CrazyOpalHello
 I agree with you. I liked the story very much too. Can you write me? Tell some words about you. I will answer you too
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