WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1)

             William Shakespeare was born in April 1564. His father was a rich citizen whose business was making and selling lea­ther gloves. His mother was a daughter of an important far­mer. When he was nineteen, William married Anne. She was a farmer’s daughter and she was some years older than himself. During that years he may have helped his father in the family business or he may have been a country schoolmaster for a time, we don’t know exactly.

              Shakespeare had three children: Susannah, the eldest, then twins — a son, Hamnet, and another girl, Judith. In 1587 Shakespeare went to work in London, leaving Anne and the children at home.

              Some years later Shakespeare began to write plays. The parents did not even guess that their son would be such an important figure in English poetry and drama and that his plays would still be acted four hundred years later in England and all over the world. By 1592 Shakespeare was an important member of a well-known company. In 1599 the famous Globe Theatre was built on the south bank of the river Thames. In that theatre most of his plays were performed. It was a round building with the stage in the centre, open to the sky. If it was raining, the actors got wet; if the weather was too bad, there was no performance at all. By 1603 Shakespeare was the lea­ding poet and dramatist of his time. He continued to write for the next ten years. In 1613 he finally stopped writing and went to live in Stratford where he died in 1616. He is buried in Stratford-on-Avon.

QUESTIONS:

1. What was William’s father business?

2. His mother was a farmer’s daughter, wasn’t she?

3. How many children did Shakespeare have?

4. When did he start to write?

5. The Globe Theatre was built in 1599, wasn’t it?

VOCABULARY:

citizen — гражданин

gloves — перчатки

to guess — догадываться

play — пьеса

stage — сцена