William Shakespeare

Shakespeare is the most famous British playwright in history. People know his name in almost every country in the world. But who exactly was William Shakespeare? That is the question!

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April, 1564. Families were big in those days. William had seven brothers and sisters.

But his parent’s weren’t poor; his father, John Shakespeare, was a successful businessman who bought and sold leather and wool. His mother was the daughter of a rich farmer. When Shakespeare left school, he went to work for his father. But soon after, he met and fell in love with Ann Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer who lived in Stratford. They got married in December 1582, and just five months late, their first daughter, Susanna, was born.

William was 18. Ann was 25. What did Shakespeare do for the next ten years?

We don’t know exactly. We don’t know why he gave up a good job in his father’s business and moved

to London. We don’t know exactly when or why he became an actor and playwright.

All we know is that in 1592 he wrote his first play. After that, his plays became popular very quickly, and he made a lot of money. Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare built a theatre – The Globe – here in the center of London.

It was one of London’s first theatres. It was round and had no roof over the center – like the theatres of ancient Rome. OK in Rome – not such a good idea in cold, rainy London! The people of London loves going to the theatre.

The globe could hold three thousand people. Some people sat to watch the plays; other stood in the middle, in front of the stage. The audience were usually noisy, often clapping and cheering, and shouting to the actors – and there were only actors, no actresses.

Young boys played the parts of women.

It often rained in London then, too. And everyone got very wet. In 1610, after about twenty-five years in London, Shakespeare came back here to Stratford. He was rich, and he had a big house where he enjoyed life with his family

and friends.

But he didn’t stop writing plays. What kind of plays did William Shakespeare write? Well, he wrote thirty-nine plays. Some of them are comedies, for example, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Comedy of Errors. They have happy endings.

Others are stories from English history, for example, stories about the kings of England. They are very patriotic. Queen Elizabeth 1 often went to see them. And the others are tragedies, such as Hamlet and MacBeth – these are sad, dark stories of murder and revenge.

Shakespeare died on his fifty-second birthday in 1616. He is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. But the characters in his plays are still with us today.

The Renaissance or the revival of learning was the period then european culture was at it’s high. It lasted from the 14’th centure till 17’th centure, and was coursed by complex economic situation and social conditions. The feudal system was been shuttled by the bourgeoisie, thich was getting stronger and stronger. It was more profitable to unite under a single rouler. Absolute monacy came into being.

This lead to the forming of nations and the true sense of the world. New social and economic conditions called for the new ideology, because the catholic dogmas didn’t correspond to the new trend of life. For this reason in many european countries the protestant religion sprend up and national churches were established.

Instead of the blind face ordered by the catholic then appeared a new outlook which was called humanism. The time demanded positive recional knowledge and this demand was supplied: in astronomy by Copernicus, in philosophy by Tomas More, in geography by Columbus, Vaska de Gama and others. Leonardo de Vinci was force a new feory of art: “It was the greatest progressive revolution that mankind have so far experience, a time, thich called for “Giants” and produced Giants in power and thought, passion and character in universality and language.”

An example of a typical men of the Renaissance period was: the famous Englishmen sir Walter Raleigh, he was a soldier, sailor, explorer, pirate, coloniser, historian, thilosother and a poet. He was much interested in science and literature. He wrote works of geography and lead expedition to South America. He was an outstanding poet.

His poems are full of profound wisdom, written with great elegance and salacity of style. He organised of “academy”. Christother Marlowe the greatest dramatist (before Shakespear).

But the most important of most this writer and one of the greatest men of this period was sir Thomas More.

The most brilliant period of English literature was in the second half of the 16’th and begining of 17’th centure. Sometimes it’s called “Elizabethen age” after quen Elizabeth 5. England had become a geat world power. It had established wide commercial contact with countries And rich trading company had been organaized. The english people were now a great nation and the english language inriched was now not unlike the language of Chaucer.

Many famous poetical and prose works appeared. Among those who inriched the literary haritage of this period ere sir Philip Sydney, Adnond Spenser and Christother Marlowe. There were fine works of poetry and prose in the Elizabethen age but the greatest hight’s of literature of this period were riached in drama.