April 23?is the 450th anniversary of the birth of Britain's most famous playwright and poet. The relatively few facts we know about William Shakespeare have made him an enigmatic figure. Here are a few things that you may not know about him:

4月23日是英國最偉大的劇作家和詩人威廉·莎士比亞誕辰450周年的日子。由于我們對莎翁知之甚少，他的身上總是籠罩著神秘的色彩。以下是一些關于莎翁的鮮為人知的事情：

1.Shakespeare was a "fat cat"

莎士比亞是個富豪

From his career in the theatre, which included acting, playwriting, and being a "sharer" in the profits of his company, Shakespeare amassed a comfortable fortune. By the age of 33 he was able to buy New Place, the 2nd largest house in Stratfordupon-Avon. He later bought property in London as well as Stratford.

在劇院的工作讓莎士比亞通過表演、戲劇寫作和公司分紅等途徑獲利頗豐。到33歲時，他已能買下埃文河畔斯特拉特福鎮第2大住宅New Place。此后，他在倫敦和斯特拉特福德也購置了房產。

2.Shakespeare was a co-writer

他與別人共同創作

It was common for playwrights of Shakespeare's time to collaborate. There are many passages in Shakespeare's plays that were written by someone else. He worked with Thomas Middleton on "Timon of Athens", and with John Fletcher on "Henry VIII".

As for some of the most famous parts of "Macbeth" - the witchy bits - it's likely they were Middleton's work too, bolted on to the play at a later date.

在莎士比亞那個時代，劇作家合作是很普遍的事。莎翁的作品中有許多片段是別人寫的。他與湯瑪士??梅道登合作編寫《雅典的泰門》，和約翰??弗萊徹一起創作《亨利八世》。而《麥克白》中的一些著名片段，比如在后來才被加進作品的巫婆那段，很可能也出自梅道登的手筆。

3.You speak Shakespeare

你說的是莎士比亞創造的英語

In spite of his flowery language, Shakespeare created many of the words or expressions we use in English today. We owe him: eyeball, bloodstained, radiance, assassination and lackluster, to name but a few.

雖然他的辭藻非常華麗，但如今我們仍在使用的很多英語單詞和表達就是莎翁創造的，隨便舉幾個例子，如eyeball(眼球)、bloodstained(血染的)、radiance(光輝)、assassination(暗殺)和lackluster(無光澤的)等。

4.Shakespeare's daughter was illiterate

莎翁的女兒不識字

In that period, literacy was a skill, useful in certain trades and professions, mainly male. Shakespeare was a man of his time, and his time did not value literacy in women.

在那個時代，讀寫能力是運用于特定專業領域的一種技能，主要適用于男性。莎士比亞是那個特定時代的人，而那個時代并不看重女性的文化水平。

5.Shakespeare did not care about posterity

莎士比亞不在意是否為后世所流傳

It seems that Shakespeare did not care whether his plays survived or not. This may partly reflect the low esteem in which plays - a form of literature - were held at the time.

莎士比亞似乎并不怎么在意他的劇作是否留存。這可能部分反映出戲劇作為一種文學形式在當時并不受到重視。

6.Shakespeare has no descendants

莎士比亞沒有后人

His only son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11. His daughter Susanna had no children and all his daughter Judith's children died young. None of his 3 brothers married. The Shakespeare line effectively ran out within 25 years of the poet's death.

他唯一的兒子哈姆內特在11歲的時候就夭亡了。他的女兒蘇珊娜沒有孩子，而另一個女兒朱迪斯生的小孩也都早夭了。他的3個兄弟都沒結過婚。實際上莎士比亞家族的血脈在詩人死后的25年內就消亡了。

7.Shakespeare has had some heavyweight haters

莎士比亞有些重量級的仇人

Not everyone has concurred in Shakespeare's greatness as a writer. Voltaire thought "Hamlet" the work of a "drunken savage"; George III said: "Was there ever such stuff as great part of Shakespeare? Only one must not say so!" And George Bernard Shaw got quite carried away in his detestation of the poet: "It would positively be a relief to me to dig him up and throw stones at him." That was in a newspaper. Imagine if Shakespeare had been on Twitter.

不是每個人都認同莎翁作為一個作家的成就。伏爾泰認為《哈姆雷特》是"醉酒的野蠻人"的產物；英王喬治三世稱："莎士比亞真有那么偉大嗎？沒人敢否定他而已！"喬治·蕭伯納將自己對這位詩人的厭惡之情表露無遺："把他從墳墓里挖出來向他扔石頭對我而言絕對是個安慰。"這還是登在報紙上的文字。試想一下，如果莎翁上Twitter的話?

（來源：中國日報雙語手機報，編輯 Helen）