DAY1 Who was Shakespeare?part1

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest English language playwright. He was a literary genius whose works are still read and performed all over the world. Shakespeare, the man, is something of an enigma, though, as very little is known about him. We do know that a William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, the third of eight children of John and Mary Shakespeare. He lived in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in England and when he was eighteen, he married a twenty-six-year-old woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, including one set of twins. For much of his life, he was employed as an actor in London, and he died in 1616, at the age of fifty-two.
Beyond those basic facts, little else is known about the life of Shakespeare. Even his birthday, April 23, is speculative and is based on the assumption that baptisms at that time took place three days after a baby's birth. In total, 154 sonnets and 37 plays, which are grouped into comedies, targedies and histories, are attributed to William Shakespeare. However, not one original manuscript has survived; the plays and poems we know today come from a collection known as the First Folio, published in 1623 after Shakespeare's death, the only portrait of him accepted as authentic appears on the title page of the First Folio.


1. enigma (n) something that is mysterious and seems impossible to understand completely
謎

2. baptize (v) a Christian ceremony in which a person has water poured on their head, or is covered briefly in water, in order to show that they have become a member of the Christian Church
受洗.浸禮

3. speculative (a) based on a guess and not on information
推測的

4. assumption (n) something that you accept as true without question or proof
假定.假設

5. baptism (n) 浸禮.洗禮

6. sonnet (n) a poem that has 14 lines and a particular pattern of rhyme
十四行詩

7. manuscript (n) the original copy of a book or article before it is printed
手稿

8. folio (n) a book made of paper of a large size, especially one of the earliest books printed in Europe
對開本的書

9. portrait (n) a painting, photograph, drawing, etc. of a person or, less commonly, of a group of peop
肖像畫

10. authentic (a) If something is authentic, it is real, true, or what people say it is
可靠的.可信的

to be continued...