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Текст What We Know about Shakespeare (Что мы знаем о Шекспире), на английском языке c некоторыми историко-лингвистическими пояснениями и лексикой к тексту (эти слова выделены в тексте).
The facts that we know with absolute certainty about William Shakespeare can be given in a few paragraphs. It is not strange that we know so little about one of the greatest men that that the world has produced. His age was not one of biographical writing. Newspapers and magazines did not exist. Encyclopaedias, dictionaries of names and volumes of Who is Who (1) had not been heard of. Few letters were written and less were kept. Yet we know about Shakespeare as much as (2) we do about most of the writers of the time, and even of many who lived much later.
The playwright’s father, John Shakespeare, moved to Stratford-on Avon (3) about 1550 and became a dealer in corn, meat, wool and leather. He probably dealt besides in all things that farmers about the village produced. He seems to have been a good man of business (4), though he could not write. His wife, the writer’s mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a rich farmer in the village of Wilmcote. He gave his daughter a house, with some land and a good sum of money.
John Shakespeare and his wife were living in a house in Hanley Street when their children were born. It was a house two storeys high (5) with small windows cut in the roof. In general appearance it remains much the same as it looked in 1556. Simple and ordinary-looking, it is still the most famous house in England and one of the most famous in the world.
Men and women from all parts of the earth have visited Stratford to see it. Stories and poems have been written about it. For here, in a small room on the second floor, William Shakespeare was born.
How little we know of Shakespeare, compared with poets of the 19th century, is shown by the fact that we are not certain of the exact date on which the greatest of all poets was born. But most probably he was born on April 23, 1564. He died also on this date, April 23, in 1616.
Of the poet’s early years we know next to nothing (6). It is a mistake, however, to think that he had no education. There was in Stratford a free Grammar School (7) to which the boy was sent. Here he studied mainly Latin, for education then in England consisted almost entirely of classic.
His friend of later years, Ben Jonson (8), said that Shakespeare had “small Latin and less Greek”, but that is not quite true. We cannot compare his knowledge with that of Jonson, who was educated in a college, but the Stratford boy understood both Latin and French well and knew the Bible thoroughly. It is clear, too, that by nature he was a boy of remarkable power of observation (9). He was educated more by people and the world of nature about him than by books and formal teaching.
Shakespeare left the Grammar School when he was thirteen years old and never went to school again. About this time his father’s money difficulties began. Another pair of hands was needed at home and William was the oldest son. Just what he did (10), however, between his fourteenth and eighteenth years we cannot say. Probably he helped his father in his business. We know nothing about his work, his reading and the events that were developing his mind during those five years, but we must remember that he was just a boy living in a small town before the age of newspapers, far from people of education and culture. During this period as little is known of him as of Cromwell (11) during the same period; as little, but no less.
When William was only eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer from a village not far from Stratford. Anne was nine years older than William and the marriage was not happy. On May 26, 1583 their daughter Susanna was born. Two years later, two sons were born to Shakespeare, and soon after the young husband and father left his native town for London.
It is known when and how and just why Shakespeare left Stratford. How can we explain this fact? Some writers think that he joined a company of actors. But it seems more natural to suppose that he left his native village because his father’s business was in a bad way Cromwell (12) and his own family was growing. What was more natural, under the circumstances, than moving to London?
Probably he walked through Oxford or bought a horse, selling it when he came to London. Some writers believe that having come to the capital Shakespeare found a job at a printer’s shop or a lawyer’s office, but it is more probable that he found a job connected with the theatre, either as a call-boy (13) in the building itself or as one of those who held the horses on which noble young men of the city came to the theatre. That he turned to the theatre rather than to business is not strange. Companies of actors had often visited Stratford when William was a boy. Indeed, the people of his native town seem to have been fond of the drama. It was a time of growing interest in the theatre. When Shakespeare was born in 1564 there was not a single theatre building in London. At the time of his death, fifty-two years later, there were at least nine, because of the development of the drama.
We know almost nothing about the first six years Shakespeare spent in the capital. But it is certain that he became an actor before he wrote for the stage. As an actor he was learning in the best possible school – the stage; as an author he probably tried his hand (14) by writing bits for the lays of older playwrights. Without friends, without money, with a wife and children, he became known as a writer only in 1593. His first printed works were two long poems. The poems having been published without a name on the title-page, we know their author only because the dedication to the Earl of Southampton (15) was signed “William Shakespeare”.
Both as actor and playwright, Shakespeare’s fame rapidly increased after 1594; in fact, in the eight years that followed he rose to the height of his powers. It was the time when he wrote Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet, Measure for measure and other great plays. In all, he was the author of over thirty plays, two poems and 154 sonnets. Together they are the most remarkable body (16) of work that ever came from a human mind.
As an actor, he did not continue to be good, and from his sonnets it is clear that he thoroughly disliked this part of his work. Being tired of it, he did not appear on the stage after 1604.
Although Shakespeare made London his home, it is probably that he often visited Stratford, where his family continued to live. In 1611, at the height of his fame, he returned to Stratford twenty-six years after he had left it. In the early spring of 1616 Shakespeare’s youngest daughter, Judith, was married. A month later he made his will and on April 23, 1616, he died. That date, April 23, was also the date on which he was born fifty-two years before. William Shakespeare was buried in a fine old church at Stratford and over the place where he lies may still be seen the lines, written by himself:
“Good friend, for Jesus’ sake (17) forbear
To dig the dust, enclosed here;
Blessed be the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.”
The bodies of many great Englishmen lie buried at Westminster Abbey in the capital of England. But, because of these lines, the grave of William Shakespeare in the beautiful church by the river he loved has remained unopened.
(1) Who is Who – название справочника с именами, адресами и краткими биографическими данными о лицах, занимающих более или менее видное положение. (Буквально: Кто есть Кто.)
(2) As much as – (здесь значит) столько же
(3) Stratford-on-Avon – город в Англии, родина Шекспира
(4) Man of business –деловой человек, делец
(5) Two storeys high – высотой в два этажа
(6) Next to nothing – почти ничего
(7) A free Grammar School – историческое название средней школы с преподаванием классических языков. В тексте значит «бесплатный» с основным значением «свободный»
(8) Ben Jonson – Бен Джонсон (1573-1637), английский драматург, современник Шекспира
(9) Power of observation – наблюдательность
(10) Just what he did – что именно он делал
(11) Cromwell -- Оливер Кромвель (1599-1658), крупнейший деятель английской буржуазной революции XVII века
(12) was in a bad way – было в плохом состоянии
(13) a call-boy – человек, вызывающий актера на сцену
(14) tried his hand – пробовал свои силы, упражнялся
(15) Earl of Southampton – граф Саутгемптон, меценат эпохи Елизаветы I
(16) body – (зд.) имеет значение «масса, объем»
(17) for Jesus’ sake – ради Иисуса (for …sake – ради)
(18) Дословный перевод эпитафии Шекспира:
«Добрый друг, ради Христа, воздержись || раскапывать прах погребенного здесь. || Благословен будь человек, который пощадит эти камни. || И проклят тот, кто потревожит мои кости.»
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