外國人最想和你聊的名人話題：威廉·莎士比亞

　About Shakespeare　關(guān)于莎士比亞

     William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
     Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later.
     Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
     Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
     莎士比亞創(chuàng)造詞匯的天賦是無與倫比的，他的話常被引用──甚至包括從未看過或讀過他的戲劇的人。況且他的名氣也并非曇花一現(xiàn)。近四百年來他的作品一直給讀者和評論家?guī)砹嗽S多歡樂。由于莎士比亞的作品已經(jīng)接受住了時(shí)間的考驗(yàn)，因此在將來的許許多多世紀(jì)里也將會受到普遍歡迎，這一推測看來不無道理。
     在評價(jià)莎士比亞的影響時(shí)，我們應(yīng)該這樣考慮，如果沒有他，就根本不會有他的作品。既能用豐富多樣的語言貼切而生動地表現(xiàn)不同人物的特色，也能用樸素自然的詞句傳達(dá)扣人心弦的感情和思想。對文學(xué)界造成如此大的影響，難怪他的朋友、著名的戲劇家本·瓊斯說："他不只屬于一個(gè)時(shí)代而屬于全世紀(jì)。"