什麼是莎士比亞

Shakespeare, William

英國詩人和劇作家，常被視為世界文學最偉大的作家。在阿文河畔斯特拉福度過早年，至少受過文法學校的教育，十八歲娶當地女子哈瑟維（A. Hathaway）為妻。1594年時，他顯然是逐漸在倫敦嶄露頭角的劇作家，也是宮內大臣供奉劇團（國王供奉劇團）的重要成員，劇團從1599年起在環球劇院演出。莎士比亞戲劇的寫作及演出順序極難確定。最早的戲劇似乎可以追溯到1590年至1590年代中期，包括《愛的徒勞》、《錯中錯》、《馴悍記》、《仲夏夜之夢》，另有以英國國王生活為本的歷史劇，包括《亨利四世》、《理查三世》、《理查二世》，還有悲劇《羅密歐與茱麗葉》。顯然是1596～1600年寫作的戲劇大致是喜劇，包括《威尼斯商人》、《溫莎的風流婦人》、《無事自擾》、《如願》，還有《亨利四世》、《亨利五世》、《凱撒大帝》等歷史劇。1600～1607年他可能寫了《第十二夜》、《皆大歡喜》、《以牙還牙》等喜劇，還有偉大的悲劇《哈姆雷特》（可能始於1599年）、《奧塞羅》、《馬克白》、《李爾王》，標示著莎士比亞藝術的高峰。晚期作品（1607年～1614）包括《安東尼與克麗奧佩脫拉》、《科里奧拉努斯》、《兩個貴族親戚》，還有幻想傳奇戲劇《冬天的故事》和《暴風雨》。莎士比亞的戲劇大致以五步抑揚格詩句寫成，散發著不尋常的詩意，有生動微妙而複雜的人物刻畫，還有高度自創的英文句法。他的154首十四行詩出版於1609年，但大致寫於1590年代，常以精心控制的形式呈現出強烈的感情。1610年以前莎士比亞退居斯特拉福，到死前一直以鄉村紳士的身分住在這裡。莎士比亞戲劇的第一版合集稱為第一對開本，出版於1623年。和當時大部分作家一樣，人們對莎士比亞的生活及工作認識極少，而其他作家，尤其是牛津伯爵），常被指為這些戲劇和詩歌的真正作者。

1564～1616年

Shakespeare, William

British poet and playwright, often considered the greatest writer in world literature. He spent his early life in Stratford-upon-Avon, receiving at most a grammar-school education, and at 18 he married a local woman, Anne Hathaway. By 1594 he was apparently a rising playwright in London and an actor in a leading theater company, the Lord Chamberlain's (later King's) Men; the company performed at the Globe Theatre from 1599. The order in which his plays were written and performed is highly uncertain. His earliest plays seem to date from1590 to the mid-1590s and include the comedies [play]Love's Labour's Lost, [play]The Comedy of Errors, [play]The Taming of the Shrew, and [play]A Midsummer Night's Dream; history plays based on the lives of the English kings, including [play]Henry VI, [play]Richard III, and [play]Richard II; and the tragedy [play]Romeo and Juliet. The plays apparently written between 1596 and 1600 are mostly comedies, including [play]The Merchant of Venice, [play]The Merry Wives of Windsor, [play]Much Ado About Nothing, and [play]As You Like It, and histories, including [play]Henry IV, [play]Henry V, and [play]Julius Caesar. Between 1600 and 1607 he may have written the comedies [play]Twelfth Night, [play]All's Well That Ends Well, and [play]Measure for Measure, as well as the great tragedies [play]Hamlet (probably begun in 1599), [play]Othello, [play]Macbeth, and [play]King Lear, which mark the summit of his art. Among his later works (about 1607 to 1614) are the tragedies [play]Antony and Cleopatra, [play]Coriolanus, and [play]Timon of Athens, as well as the fantastical romances [play]The Winter's Tale and [play]The Tempest. Shakespeare's plays, all of them written largely in iambic pentameter verse, are marked by extraordinary poetry, vivid, subtle, and complex characterizations, and a highly inventive use of English. His 154 sonnets, published in 1609 but apparently written mostly in the 1590s, often express strong feeling within an exquisitely controlled form. Shakespeare retired to Stratford before 1610 and lived as a country gentleman until his death. The first collected edition of his plays, or First Folio, was published in 1623. As with most writers of the time, little is known about his life and work, and other writers, particularly the 17th Earl of Oxford, have frequently been proposed as the actual authors of his plays and poems.