关于莎士比亚你所不知道的15件事 15 things you didn't know about William Shakespeare

一代文豪莎士比亚今年诞辰450周年。我们一起来看看关于他的那些不为人知的事情……

By Simon Crerar

李殊 选 祝平 注

1. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations , Shakespeare wrote close to a tenth of the most quoted lines ever written or spoken in English.

2. Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language.

3. William Shakespeare would have been considered a very controversial figure when he married a much older woman who was pregnant with their child.

Anne Hathaway (not the actress) was 26 years old when William married her at the age of 18. She duly gave birth to Susannah six months after the wedding.

4. Shakespeare never published his plays.

They are known today only because two of his fellow actors—John Hemminges and Henry Condell—recorded and published 36 of them posthumously under the name The First Folio , which is the source of all Shakespeare books published.

5. Copyright didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s time, so there was a thriving trade in copied plays.

To help counter this, actors got their lines only once the play was in progress, often in the form of cue acting where someone backstage whispered them to the person shortly before he was supposed to deliver them.

6. Aside from writing 37 plays and composing 154 sonnets, Shakespeare was also an established actor.

He performed in many of his own plays as well as those of his contemporaries , such as Ben Jonson.

7. Shakespeare had close connections with King James I .

The King made the actors of Shakespeare’s company “Grooms of Chamber”, in response Shakespeare changed the company’s name from the “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” to the “King’s Men”. The new title made Shakespeare a favourite with the King and in much demand for Court performances.

8. Sometime after his unsuccessful application to become a gentleman, Shakespeare took his father to the College of Arms to secure their own family crest.

The crest was a yellow spear on a yellow shield, with the Latin inscription “Non Sans Droict”, or “Not without Right”.

9. Unlike most artists of his time, Shakespeare died a very wealthy man with a large property portfolio .

He was a brilliant businessman forming a joint-stock company with his actors meaning he took a share in the company’s profits, as well as earning a fee for each play he wrote.

10. Shakespeare placed a curse on his grave in Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon in the form of a poem etched on his tombstone.

Though this undoubtedly helped his bones to remain untouched since his death, in 1747 Stratford citizens replaced the original bag of grain grave marker with a quill.

11. Although Shakespeare is almost universally considered as one of the finest writers in the English language, his contemporaries were not always as impressed .

The first recorded reference to Shakespeare, written by theatre critic Robert Greene in 1592, was as an “upstart crow, beautified with our feathers”.

12. There are more than 80 variations recorded for the spelling of Shakespeare’s name.

In the few original signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelt his name “WillmShaksp,” “William Shakespe,” “Wm Shakspe,” “William Shakspere,” ”Willm Shakspere,” and “William Shakspeare”. There are no records of him ever having spelt it “William Shakespeare”, as we know him today.

13. The original Globe Theatre came to a premature end in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII, when a cannon set light to the thatched roof. Within two hours the theatre was burnt to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1614.

14. The Royal Shakespeare Company sells more than half a million tickets a year for Shakespeare productions at their theatres in Stratford-on-Avon, London and Newcastle.

15. Nobody knows Shakespeare’s true birthday. It’s celebrated on April 23—three days before his baptism , which was recorded on April 26, 1564.

However, as Shakespeare was born under the old Julian calendar, what was April 23 during Shakespeare’s life would actually be May 3 according to today’s Gregorian calendar.

（来源：英语学习杂志 编辑：丹妮）