🗊William Shakespeare, a Sweet Swan of Avon. Makarovskaya A. Zhuravlyova L.

William Shakespeare, a Sweet Swan of Avon. Makarovskaya A. Zhuravlyova L.

“The applause! Delight! The wonder of our stage! …………………………………………………… Thou art a monument without a tomb, And art alive still while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read and praise to give. ……………………………………………… He was not of an age, but for all time!” Ben Jonson

William Shakespeare, a great British poet and dramatist was born on April 23 in 1516. He was born in the family of John Shakespeare, a merchant.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. Among them there are deep tragedies, such as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, light comedies, such as The Merry Wives Windsor, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, historical dramas, such as Henry Iv, Richard Most of Shakespeare’s plays were not published in his life-time. So some of them may have been lost in the fire when the ,, Globe’’ burned down in 1613. Shakespeare spent the last years of his life at Stratford where he died in 1616. He was buried in the church of Stratford. A monument was erected to the memory of the great playwright in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Shakespeare was a great humanist. His belief in the high and noble features of man’s mind and heart was the foundation of his great humanist. Shakespeare’s belief in man was the source of his optimism which we can feel in even his blackest tragedies. Of course, it is not expressed in the positive endings when the Montagues and Capulets (Romeo and Juliet) shake hands or Fortinbras (Hamlet) ascends the throne. The optimist of Shakespeare’s tragedies has much deeper roots. His optimist is his belief in the triumph of the principle of harmony. Romeo and Juliet died but their ideal of free and happy love remained. Othello stabbed himself to death, but still retained his faith in harmony and happiness. Lear died but even as he died, he knew that truth existed in the world, personified for him by Cordelia.

Shakespeare was a great writer. He wrote many different kinds of plays. In his plays he could write equally well funny scenes, and scenes of fear and excitement. The characters in Shakespeare’s plays do not seem like ,,characters in a book’’, but as if they were real people whom we could recognize at once if we met them in ordinary life instead of in the play. In fact, the names of some of Shakespeare’s characters, such as Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and many others, are known even to people who have never seen the plays in which they appear. Pushkin and Russian revolutionary democrats highly valued Shakespeare as one of the greatest poets of the world.

We have read many Shakespeare’s sonnets and such plays: “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “ Romeo and Juliet”, “ Twelfth Night”. Most of all We like “Romeo and Juliet”, because his characters are true to life, romantic and realistic. Shakespeare’s masterpieces help to know English better, to understand people, to learn more literature and history. His sonnets, plays and tragedies also help to solve our own problems and at the same time to escape from everyday life problems. We adore his characters. William Shakespeare and his characters are really not of an “age but for all times as” B. Jonson said.

Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather, Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, Age’s breath is short. Youth is nimble, Age is lame, Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold. Youth is wild, and Age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; Youth, I do adore thee. O my love, my love is young. Age, I do defy thee.

Thank you For Attention!