莎士比亚简介——英文

2021年1月22日发(作者：邵九琳)
I. Introduction
Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives. In the course of a
quarter century, Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them
are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the
foremost
literary
talent
of
his
own
Elizabethan
Age
and,
even
more
impressively,
as
a
genius
whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.


In light of Shakespeare's stature and the passage of nearly four centuries since his death, it is not
surprising that hundreds of Shakespeare biographies have been written in all of the world's major
languages. Scanning this panorama, most accounts of the Bard's life (and certainly the majority of
modern studies) are contextual in the sense that they place the figure of Shakespeare against the
rich
tapestry
of
his

or

or

This
characteristic
approach
to
Shakespeare
biography
is
actually
a matter
of
necessity,
for
without
such
fleshing
out
into
historical,
social,
and
literary
settings,
the
skeletal
character
of
what
we
know
about
Shakespeare
from
primary
sources would make for slim and, ironically, boring books. As part of this embellishment process,
serious scholars continue to mine for hard facts about the nature of Shakespeare's world. The
interpretation
of
their
meaning
necessarily
varies,
often
according
to
the
particular
school
or
ideology of the author.


Whatever
the
differences
of
opinion,
valid
or
at
least
plausible
views
about
Shakespeare,
his
character
and
his
personal
experience
continue
to
be
advanced.
Yet
even
among
modern
Shakespeare
biographies,
in
addition
to
outlandish
interpretations
of
the
available
facts,
there
persists (and grows) a body of traditions about such matters as Shakespeare's marriage, his move
to London, the circumstances of his death and the like. The result of all this is that there is now a
huge tapestry of descriptive, critical, and analytical work about Shakespeare in existence, much
of it reasonable, some of it outlandish, and some of it hogwash.


II. Three important points about Shakespeare
In examining Shakespeare's life, three broad points should be kept in mind from the start. First,
despite
the
frustration
of
Shakespeare
biographers
with
the
absence
of
a
primary
source
of
information
written
during
(or
even
shortly
after)
his
death
on
23
April
1616
(his
fifty-second
birthday), Shakespeare's life is not obscure. In fact, we know more about Shakespeare's life, its
main events and contours, than we know about most famous Elizabethans outside of the royal
court itself.


Shakespeare's
life
is
unusually
well-documented:
there
are
well
over
100
references
to
Shakespeare and his immediate family in local parish, municipal, and commercial archives and we
also have at least fifty observations about Shakespeare's plays (and through them, his life) from
his contemporaries. The structure of Shakespeare's life is remarkably sound; it is the flesh of his
personal experience,
his
motives,
and
the
like
that
have
no
firm
basis
and
it
is,
of
course,
this
descriptive content in which we are most interested.


Second, the appeal of seeing an autobiographical basis in Shakespeare's plays and poetry must be
tempered
by
what
the
bulk
of
the evidence
has
to
say
about
him.
Although
there
are
fanciful
stories about Shakespeare, many centering upon his romantic affairs, connections between them
and
the
events
or
characters
of
his
plays
are
flimsy,
and
they
generally
disregard
our
overall
impression
of
the
Bard.
In
his
personal
life,
Shakespeare
was,
in
fact,
an
exceedingly
practical
individual,
undoubtedly
a
jack
of
many
useful
trades,
and
a
shrewd
businessman
in
theatrical,
commercial and real estate circles.


Third, the notion that plays ascribed to Shakespeare were actually written by others (Sir Francis
Bacon, the poet Phillip Sidney among the candidates) has become even weaker over time. The
current
strong
consensus
is
that
while
Shakespeare
may
have
collaborated
with
another
Elizabethan playwright in at least one instance (probably with John Fletcher on The Two Noble
Kinsman), and that one or two of his plays were completed by someone else (possibly Fletcher on
an original or revised version of Henry VIII), the works ascribed to Shakespeare are his.


III. Birth and Early Life
Parish
records
establish
that
William
Shakespeare
was
baptized
on
26
April,
1564.
Simply
counting
backwards
the
three
customary
days
between
birth
and
baptism
in
Anglican
custom,
most
reckon
that
the
Bard
of
Avon
was
born
on
23
April,
1564.
This
is,
indeed,
Shakespeare's
official birthday in England, and, it is also the traditional birth date of St. George, the patron saint
of England. The exact date and the precise cause of Shakespeare's death are unknown: one local
tradition asserts that the Bard died on 23 April, 1616, of a chill caught after a night of drinking
with fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. Shakespeare was, in fact, buried three
days later, exactly 52 years after his baptism.


Shakespeare was born and raised in the picturesque Tudor market town of Stratford-on-Avon, a
local
government
and
commercial
center
within
a
larger
rural
setting,
and
it
is
likely
that
the
surrounding woodlands of his boyhood were reflected in the play As You Like It, with its Forest of
Arden. Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden was a daughter of the local gentry, holding extensive
properties
around
Stratford- on-Avon
in
his
name.
In
marrying
Shakespeare's
father,
the
glover
and
tenant
farmer
John
Shakespeare,
Mary
Arden
took
a
step
down
the
social
ladder
of
the
Elizabethan Age, for her husband was of the yeoman class, a notch or two below the gentry. Yet
long
before
his
son's
fame as
a
playwright
fell
to
his
good
fortune,
John
Shakespeare's
talents
enabled him to rise modestly on his own accord as he became a burgess member of the town
council. Despite evidence of a family financial setback when William was fifteen, Shakespeare's
family was comfortable, if not privileged. Shakespeare's eventual fame and success spilled over to
his
parents
in
the
form
of
both
money
and
title,
and
on
the
eve
of
his
death
in
1601,
Queen
Elizabeth granted the Bard's father a


We have good cause to believe that Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School where he
would have received a tuition-free education as the son of a burgess father. There young William
was exposed to a standard Elizabethan curriculum strong on Greek and Latin literature (including
the playwrights Plautus and Seneca, and the amorous poet Ovid), rhetoric (including that of the
ancient Roman orator Cicero), and Christian ethics (including a working knowledge of the Holy
Bible).
These
influences
are
pervasive
in
Shakespeare's
works,
and
it
is
also
apparent
that
Shakespeare cultivated a knowledge of English history through chronicles written shortly before