《新编英语教程_unit_4》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《新编英语教程_unit_4（45页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、unit 4Text I A Man from Stratford William Shakespeare,Text 1: A Man from Stratford William Shakespeare,Background InformationVocabularyStructureQuestions,William Shakespeare,William Shakespeare (1564-1616), born in Stratford-on-Avon in England, is one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets in
2、the world. He has established his giant position in the world literature with his 38 plays, 154 sonnets十四行诗 and 2 long poems.,William Shakespeare,William Shakespeare,Midsummers Nights Dream The Merchant of Venice As You Like It Twelfth Night,Great Comedies,William Shakespeare,Othello King Lear Macbe
3、th Hamlet,Great Tragedies,1 On March 25th, 1616, fifty-two-year-old Master William Shakespeare signed his will leaving the famous legacy of his “second best bed and furniture” to his wife and the greater part of his estate to his married daughter, Susanna Hall. It was the will of a comfortably off m
4、an, for the income from the estate probably amounted to about $200 a year, which was a lot of money over three hundred and sixty years ago. For historians, the most interesting part of the will was that signature, because it and other signatures are all we have left of the handwriting of the worlds
5、literary genius. There is no country where Shakespeares work is not read with something very like awe because there is something fascinating about a man whose work was so much better than that of anyone else.,A Man from Stratford William Shakespeare,Yet in spite of the thousands of books that have b
6、een written about this amazing writer, almost every detail of his personal life is supposition rather than fact. Historically speaking, Shakespeare lived only yesterday but his activities, like those of nearly every playwright of his day, are so vague that he could have been born in Roman times. 2 S
7、hakespeares birthplace, the little town of Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen for a long time. It is a popular place for tourists from all over the world, even though many of them would have the greatest of difficulty in understanding Sh
8、akespeares Elizabethan English. However, he has such a fine reputation that it is well worth the journey just to be able to look at the swans that swim on his river, and gaze at the cottage where Anne, his wife, lived before their marriage, and then to see his plays at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
9、,3 To plot Shakespeares life is to become involved in a kind of detective story where there are plenty of clues but very little else. Nobody even knows the exact date of his birth, although the register of the Parish Church confirms that William Shakespeare was baptized there on April 26th, 1564. No
10、r can it be proved that he went to the excellent local grammar school, although he probably did as there was nowhere else for him to go. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years older than himself, and they had three children. Then in 1585 this young married man apparently left
11、 Stratford and his family, for there is absolutely no record of him for seven long years.,4 Exactly what happened to William Shakespeare during those seven years has puzzled scholars ever since. There are different theories, but of all the probabilities the most likely one is that he travelled abroa
12、d, spending a good deal of time at sea. Shakespeare wrote with great conviction about storms and shipwrecks and eating the hard ships biscuits “with aching teeth“.,5 What is quite certain is that, during the time Shakespeare lived there, Stratford-upon-Avon was visited by a great number of theatrica
13、l companies. It can never be proved, but it seems quite possible that the young Shakespeare saw some of these performances, realized in a flash that this was the life for him and talked one of the managers into giving him a job. At least nobody questions the fact that he can next be traced in 1592 i
14、n London, earning his living as a dramatist and generally getting well known in the theatre.,Whatever else had happened during the lost years, plays that followed, such as Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew, were proof that the greatest literary career of all time had begun. Shakespeare soon be
15、came sufficiently well known for managers and other influential people to refer to him in writing. We know that as well as working on old plays he rapidly made a name for himself as an author of entirely new ones and also performed as an actor at court. During his fifteen years as a working man of t
16、he theatre, Shakespeare wrote more than thirty plays as well as marvellous verse.,6 After his death on April 23rd, 1616, Shakespeare left behind a mass of questions that experts have been trying to answer ever since. What was the source of Shakespeares amazingly detailed knowledge of so many different subjects? Who was the beautiful but apparently heartless “dark lady“ who seemed to have first inspired him and then caused him a lot of sadness? So far we do not know. There have even been foolish attempts to prove that William Shakespeares plays were in fact written by someone else.,
