A25
Shakespeare
Shakespeare the man
William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in the English language, and many people think he is also the best ever writer in English.
He lived from 1564 until 1616, and for most of his life, Elizabeth I was Queen. These were dangerous and exciting times in England. In 1588, the ships of the Spanish Armada tried to attack England, and were beaten back by the small English ships that went out to fight them in the English Channel. During Shakespeare's time, new theatres were being built, especially in London. One theatre, the Globe, is especially associated with Shakespeare. It burned down in 1613, but in 1997 a new Globe theatre was built near the exact site.
the Globe Theatre
Shakespeare came to London from Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, where he was born and brought up. He became a member of a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and wrote several plays which they performed. After the Queen died in 1603, the new King, James I, ordered them to change their name to The King's Men. We do not know the exact date when Shakespeare was born, but we do know he was christened on April 26th, 1564. So his birthday is now celebrated on April 23rd. This is a good day to celebrate England's greatest writer, as it is also St George's Day (St George is the Patron Saint of England). On the weekend closest to April 23rd, people from all over the world come to Stratford, and there are many special events, including a parade through the streets. April 23rd is also the day when he died, in 1616.
Shakespeare the writer
Shakespeare wrote poems, sonnets, and three sorts of plays: tragedies, comedies, and histories. In tragedies, the main character is always responsible for a terrible event, usually without intending to. In Shakespeare's tragedies, a lot of people die. The most famous tragedies are Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. The comedies are not so serious, and usually have a happy ending. In some of them, the plots include women dressing up as men, which was considered very funny in the 17th century because women were not allowed to be actors, and the parts for women were played by boys. So boys had to pretend they were women pretending to be men! The histories tell the story of English Kings. One of the interesting things about the histories is that although they are about people who had been dead for a long time, Shakespeare was often making a point about people or politics in his own lifetime.
Many of Shakespeare's plays have been used as the basis for famous films, such as West Side Story (1961), a musical film about two gangs in New York who are always fighting each other, which is based on Romeo and Juliet. The science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956), based on The Tempest, is another. The Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, has made films based on Macbeth and on King Lear. All these films use Shakespeare's plots to tell a modern story. Other films have been made of Shakespeare's plays, including Gamlet (1964), a version of Hamlet in Russian which is considered to be one of the best films of a Shakespeare play ever made. In 1944, Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V was deliberately made in order to tell the story of English courage and to encourage British people during World War II.
And in theatres all over the world, Shakespeare's plays are still regularly performed. Even after 400 years, we are still discovering that Shakespeare has a lot to say to us.