Shakespeare

Today I would like to tell you about interesting thing about Shakespeare.

First of all, some facts:

William Shakespeare was born in 1564. He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.

He wrote approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems.

Although he was popular during his lifetime, he reached the greatest fame after death.

He was one of the few playwrights who have successfully created both comedies and tragedies.

He is also the most frequently quoted writer of the English-speaking world.

He created about 600 neologisms, which entered into everyday life.

Some of his most well-known works are: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Makbet, King Lear, All’s Well That Ends Well or The Comedy of Errors.

I found a web page in which there are about 50 interesting things about Shakespeare, but I have chosen 10 really interesting for me:

1.      His younger brother was also an actor, but he didn’t make strong presence in theater history.

2.      Shakespeare was wealthy. He was a shareholder in a prosperous theater.

3.      Shakespeare created a lot of new words like eyeball, assassination.

4.      Researchers have still debate whether his sonnets are autobiographical or not.

5.      He didn’t take care of his daughter’s education, because Judith was illiterate and Susan was only able to write her name.

6.      He don’t have descendent, because his children were dead early and they didn’t have their own children.

7.      Some people, especially poets really hated him, Wolter said that Hamlet is the work of drunken savage.

8.      The American President Abraham Lincoln really loved Shakespeare’s creation. His murderer was a famous Shakespearean actor.

9.      Women and girls couldn’t perform in the theatre in Shakespeare’s lifetime so all the female parts were written for boys. It was only much later, during the Restoration that the first woman appeared on the English stage.

10.  In Shakespeare's time there was no electricity as today and he had to use the candles, but candles were very expensive then, so they were used only for emergencies, for a short time. Shakespeare and most of writers in the daytime, but in the evening they socialized.