莎士比亚(1564～1616年)
Shakespeare, William
英国诗人和剧作家，常被视为世界文学最伟大的作家。在阿文河畔斯特拉福度过早年，至少受过文法学校的教育，十八岁娶当地女子哈瑟维（A. Hathaway）为妻。1594年时，他显然是逐渐在伦敦崭露头角的剧作家，也是宫内大臣供奉剧团（国王供奉剧团）的重要成员，剧团从1599年起在环球剧院演出。莎士比亚戏剧的写作及演出顺序极难确定。最早的戏剧似乎可以追溯到1590年至1590年代中期，包括《爱的徒劳》、《错中错》、《驯悍记》、《仲夏夜之梦》，另有以英国国王生活为本的历史剧，包括《亨利四世》、《理查三世》、《理查二世》，还有悲剧《罗密欧与茱丽叶》。显然是1596～1600年写作的戏剧大致是喜剧，包括《威尼斯商人》、《温莎的风流妇人》、《无事自扰》、《如愿》，还有《亨利四世》、《亨利五世》、《凯撒大帝》等历史剧。1600～1607年他可能写了《第十二夜》、《皆大欢喜》、《以牙还牙》等喜剧，还有伟大的悲剧《哈姆雷特》（可能始於1599年）、《奥塞罗》、《马克白》、《李尔王》，标示着莎士比亚艺术的高峰。晚期作品（1607年～1614）包括《安东尼与克丽奥佩脱拉》、《科里奥拉努斯》、《两个贵族亲戚》，还有幻想传奇戏剧《冬天的故事》和《暴风雨》。莎士比亚的戏剧大致以五步抑扬格诗句写成，散发着不寻常的诗意，有生动微妙而复杂的人物刻画，还有高度自创的英文句法。他的154首十四行诗出版於1609年，但大致写於1590年代，常以精心控制的形式呈现出强烈的感情。1610年以前莎士比亚退居斯特拉福，到死前一直以乡村绅士的身分住在这里。莎士比亚戏剧的第一版合集称为第一对开本，出版於1623年。和当时大部分作家一样，人们对莎士比亚的生活及工作认识极少，而其他作家，尤其是牛津伯爵），常被指为这些戏剧和诗歌的真正作者。
English version：
1564～1616年
Shakespeare, William
British poet and playwright, often considered the greatest writer in world literature. He spent his early life in Stratford-upon-Avon, receiving at most a grammar-school education, and at 18 he married a local woman, Anne Hathaway. By 1594 he was apparently a rising playwright in London and an actor in a leading theater company, the Lord Chamberlain's (later King's) Men; the company performed at the Globe Theatre from 1599. The order in which his plays were written and performed is highly uncertain. His earliest plays seem to date from1590 to the mid-1590s and include the comedies [play]Love's Labour's Lost, [play]The Comedy of Errors, [play]The Taming of the Shrew, and [play]A Midsummer Night's Dream; history plays based on the lives of the English kings, including [play]Henry VI, [play]Richard III, and [play]Richard II; and the tragedy [play]Romeo and Juliet. The plays apparently written between 1596 and 1600 are mostly comedies, including [play]The Merchant of Venice, [play]The Merry Wives of Windsor, [play]Much Ado About Nothing, and [play]As You Like It, and histories, including [play]Henry IV, [play]Henry V, and [play]Julius Caesar. Between 1600 and 1607 he may have written the comedies [play]Twelfth Night, [play]All's Well That Ends Well, and [play]Measure for Measure, as well as the great tragedies [play]Hamlet (probably begun in 1599), [play]Othello, [play]Macbeth, and [play]King Lear, which mark the summit of his art. Among his later works (about 1607 to 1614) are the tragedies [play]Antony and Cleopatra, [play]Coriolanus, and [play]Timon of Athens, as well as the fantastical romances [play]The Winter's Tale and [play]The Tempest. Shakespeare's plays, all of them written largely in iambic pentameter verse, are marked by extraordinary poetry, vivid, subtle, and complex characterizations, and a highly inventive use of English. His 154 sonnets, published in 1609 but apparently written mostly in the 1590s, often express strong feeling within an exquisitely controlled form. Shakespeare retired to Stratford before 1610 and lived as a country gentleman until his death. The first collected edition of his plays, or First Folio, was published in 1623. As with most writers of the time, little is known about his life and work, and other writers, particularly the 17th Earl of Oxford, have frequently been proposed as the actual authors of his plays and poems.
