"Cliff Notes - Merchant of Venice, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

reason for the belief that Shakespeare was a mere front for some
other author is the snobbish prejudice that only a person of
aristocratic breeding and wealth could have produced such great
writing. The story of Shakespeare's life, sketchy as it may be,
demonstrates that genius may appear anywhere, even in a country
village and an undistinguished family tree.

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April of 1564, William Shakespeare
was the son of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker and storekeeper, and
Mary Arden. (It has become traditional to celebrate Shakespeare's
birthday on April 23, the same date as the anniversary of his death.
Like so much in Shakespeare's biography, this, too, is speculative.)
William was the third of eight children. The Shakespeares were not
wealthy, at least not by the standards of the London aristocracy,
but they weren't poor either.

If Shakespeare was like most sons of prosperous tradesmen, he
attended a local grammar school where he would have studied the
Latin classics. The plots of Shakespeare's plays, which borrow
freely from other sources, suggest that he was well read in both
ancient and modern literature. However, he never attended a
university.

The only documented episode in Shakespeare's life which provides any
raw material for gossip was his marriage in 1582. Shakespeare's
bride, Anne Hathaway, was seven or eight years older than he, and
records show that the marriage license was issued on November 28.
The engagement was announced in church only once--not three Sundays
in a row as was the usual custom. Some five months later, in May
1583, Anne Shakespeare gave birth to a daughter, who was named
Susanna. Some scholars conclude from this that Shakespeare had
gotten Anne pregnant and had to marry her. This position is
challenged by other scholars who either claim that it was not
unusual at the time for an engaged couple to sleep together or that
the documentary records are simply unreliable.

Two years later, Anne Shakespeare gave birth to twins, a girl,
Judith, and a boy, Hamnet. At some time during the 158OS--we're not
sure exactly when--Shakespeare went off to London to make his
fortune in the theater.

We do know that by 1592 William Shakespeare had earned a reputation
in London as an actor and playwright. In 1597, when Shakespeare was
only thirty-three years old and still had some of his greatest work
ahead of him, Francis Meres, a preacher and scholar, was already
praising the "mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare" as the
equal of the great Roman dramatists Seneca and Plautus.

The theater was a very popular form of entertainment in Elizabethan
times, so named for Queen Elizabeth I, England's monarch. It was