2023-04-23 03:57:33
- Walid Badran
- BBC
On April 23 of each year, the world celebrates the International Day of the English Language, which is the most widely spoken language around the globe, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
The date of the death of William Shakespeare, the famous English writer, who is considered the greatest of books in English, was chosen to celebrate this day at the initiative of the United Nations Department of Public Information in 2010, where days were set for each of the six official languages of the organization, which also includes Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish (Spanish celebrates its World Day on April 23 as well). But who is Shakespeare whose date of death was chosen to commemorate the occasion?
The Encyclopædia Britannica says that William Shakespeare was born on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, and died on April 23, 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon, an English poet and playwright, considered by many to be the greatest playwright of all time. all time.
His work has been translated into 80 languages, and he helped shape the English we use today as he introduced up to 300 words and dozens of well-known phrases.
His plays are known worldwide for their universal themes and insights into the human condition. However, much regarding his life is still a mystery, as historians do not know how he spent 7 years of his life.
beginnings
There is no record of his date of birth, but his baptism is recorded as 26 April 1564, and it was customary for baptisms to take place on the third day following birth.
He was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who converted England to Protestantism. Both of Shakespeare’s parents were Catholics, and the tension between the two faiths can be seen in much of his work.
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William’s father, John Shakespeare, was a member of the Stratford-upon-Avon City Council. William was the third of 8 children.
Details of Shakespeare’s education are unknown. He probably began his education at the age of six or seven.
Young William probably attended a local school focusing on the Greek classics, and the pupils also learned plays in Latin.
Religious education was also important, and Shakespeare relied on these sources in his theatrical works as classical and religious allusions. There is no record of him going to university.
King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon has lost attendance records for his time.
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, 26, in 1582 when he was 18, and Hathaway was already three months pregnant with their first child.
The “lost years” and fame
The baptism of his three sons is the last recorded of him for a period of 7 years between 1585 and 1592 known as his lost years.
Some claim that he worked as a teacher or “boy” for a butcher or a lawyer’s clerk at that time.
At some point, Shakespeare went to the British capital, London, leaving his family in Stratford, where he established himself as a playwright and actor.
A century later, his first biographer notes, he fled to London from punishment for deer poaching. However, no records of his activities in those years have been found.
The next known record of Shakespeare appears following he had already become a playwright in London. This record, which appeared in 1592, was a review of his work, not a positive review.
Playwright Robert Greene called Shakespeare an “arrogant crow”, accusing him of being overrated compared to college-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe and Greene himself.
The drama in the Elizabethan theater had come under the patronage of the nobility, as Shakespeare belonged to the Lord Chamberlain’s men and it is believed that he wrote the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III at this stage.
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William Shakespeare performing before Queen Elizabeth I
Some academics suggest that his historical plays were supportive of Elizabeth I’s claim to the throne, and he was involved in performing his plays before the Queen.
He was described by the author Francis Meres in 1598 as “the best” of English writers on both comedy and tragedy, and his works attracted royal attention.
In the early seventeenth century, Shakespeare presented the plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Shakespeare became famous and rich because of his plays. He was also a contributor to the Lord Chamberlain’s Band.
The company built its own theater called the Globe, and Shakespeare owned a 12.5 percent stake, which made him even richer. He invested in real estate in Stratford and London, and records of his purchases remain.
In 1597, he bought the second largest house in Stratford for his family, along with 107 acres of farmland and a country house.
In this sense, many historians consider him a successful businessman, not just a talented playwright.
After the death of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s troupe gained the patronage of King James I. The play King Lear, which he may have composed at this time, takes the idea of kingdoms divided as a story that reflects the situation during the reign of James I (of Scottish descent) in England, Scotland and Wales.
Meanwhile, he introduced the play Macbeth, which he also wrote early in James’ reign and may have been intended to honor the ancestors of the Scottish king.
Last plays and death
His recent plays, such as The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, are characterized by their ending in reconciliation and forgiveness compared to his previous dramas.
This change in mood may simply reflect the theatrical style prevalent at the time, but it may also be evidence that Shakespeare developed a more moderate view of life as he grew older.
On April 23, 1616, Shakespeare died, and there are no contemporary accounts of his death.
Fifty years later, the vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote that Shakespeare died of a fever he caught following a “gay meeting” where he “drank too much”.
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The complete copy of his works collected by two of his friends
In 1623, 7 years following his death, a collection of Shakespeare’s writings was published. This was by far the most complete version of his work.
It was compiled by his friends John Heming and Henry Condell and contained 36 plays, including 18 that had not been published before. In 2006, a copy of that first set sold for £2.8 million.
In 1642 his theater was closed and destroyed two years later by the Puritans, who considered theater and festivities a way to distract people from studying religion and drawing near to God. When the Puritans seized power during Cromwell’s Republic in England (1649-1660), anyone caught performing a play was sentenced to flogging, and anyone caught attending a play was fined.
At that time, the works of Shakespeare – and his contemporaries – were not performed in public. Plays were not legalized once more until Charles II regained the throne, and the monarchy was restored in 1660.
national symbol
Over the next hundred years his plays were performed as his fame and reputation grew throughout the country.
Samuel Johnson quoted Shakespeare thousands of times in his English Dictionary, published in 1755. He noted that Shakespeare coined or introduced thousands of words and phrases into the English language.
In 1769, Shakespeare was celebrated at the festival organized by actor David Garrick in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Since then, his home in the area has been visited by scores of famous writers, whose names are inscribed on the glass in the room where Shakespeare was born. The window has been replaced, but the original glass is still on display.
Each year, thousands of people continue this tradition and visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. The house therefore remains one of Stratford-upon-Avon’s busiest attractions.
In the nineteenth century, Shakespeare became an important symbol of national pride, and was used to spread the influence of British imperial power.
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Shakespeare reads Hamlet to his family
And the works of Shakespeare, taught in schools across the empire, helped to imbue a sense of cultural patriotism in themes of empire. and in 1841 Thomas Carlyle described it as “a veritable property, marketable and concretely useful”.
Postcolonial critics argued that this was a way in which the British Empire attempted to subjugate the cultures of the countries it conquered as Shakespeare continued to be exported, adapted, and translated around the world. Shakespeare’s work was also used to spread English culture throughout the empire and the world.
Cinema
With the advent of cinema, Shakespeare’s plays were rediscovered in new ways, with the first Shakespeare film made in 1899.
The film was a simple recording of a small portion of the play King John.
Decades later, came Shakespeare’s first film masterpieces, including Laurence Olivier’s masterpieces such as Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III, and later films such as Romeo and Juliet.
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A scene from Romeo and Juliet, 1967
With more than 400 film adaptations of his plays, Shakespeare is the most frequently used author in cinema, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
In 1997 Queen Elizabeth II opened Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, built a few hundred yards from Shakespeare’s co-owner’s original Globe on Thames, built in 1599.
In 2014, the Globe Theater sold 368,000 tickets, proof that Shakespeare’s plays are still big business.
Today, Shakespeare is considered England’s national playwright, and the prestige of his plays and star cast reflects this. But Shakespeare might have been forgotten had his works not been compiled by two of his actor friends.
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