莎士比亚 时代的灵魂

Shakespeare: Soul of the Age

Shakespeare was born on the 23rd of April 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon, a little town in the heart of England.

He was the eldest son of the family and educated at the local grammar school, but his father's business went from bad to worse, he had to leave school and begin to earn his living.

When eighteen, he was a married man to a local girl.

At the age of twenty-one, he set off to seek his fortune in the great city of London.

There, he was in turn a horse-keeper, a stage-boy, a play mender and finally a playwright.

Afterwards Shakespeare joined as an actor one or several companies of players.

By 1584 he became as a rising playwright in London, and became soon a central figure in London's leading theater company.

During that time he wrote many great plays for the group.

He was known in his day as very rapid writer: "His mind and hand went together," his publisher reported, and what he thought, he uttered with that easiness that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers.