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.
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