William Shakespeare
英国戏剧之父——威廉·莎士比亚

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about thirty-eight plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
威廉·莎士比亚(1564—1616)，英国诗人、剧作家和演员，被公认是最伟大的英语语言文学巨匠和世界上最卓越的剧作家。他常被人们称为英国的民族诗人和“埃文河畔的吟游诗人”。他的现存作品有38部戏剧、154首十四行诗、2首叙事长诗和其他一些诗歌。他的剧本已被译为世界上所有主要的语言，演出次数远超任何一位其他剧作家。

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres even today. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet , King Lear , Othello , and Macbeth , considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
莎士比亚的大部分作品创作于1589年至1613年间。他的早期作品主要是喜剧和历史剧，这些作品直到今天仍被视为同体裁中最好的作品。之后一直到1608年他主要创作了一些悲剧作品，包括《哈姆雷特》《李尔王》《奥赛罗》和《麦克白》等一些被认为是英语中最优秀的作品。在他人生的最后阶段，他开始与其他剧作家联合创作悲喜剧，亦即爱情小说。

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In the 20th and 21st century, his work has been repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
莎士比亚一生中的许多作品都出版了不同质量、不同精确度的版本。在20世纪和21世纪，他的作品不断被学术界和表演界所采用或重拾。莎翁的戏剧时至今日依然非常流行，且被人们不断研究和表演，在世界上不同的文化和政治背景下得以重新诠释。