"Cliff Notes - Henry 4 Part1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES


William Shakespeare was born into a tradesman's family in Stratford-
upon-Avon in late April, 1564. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare
married Anne Hathaway, ten years older than he. The young couple had
a baby girl named Susanna six months later on May 26, 1583. In 1585
the birth of fraternal twins, Hamnet and Judith, completed the new
family. But shortly afterward, Shakespeare left Stratford and moved
to London, leaving his family behind.

No one knows what Shakespeare did for a living before he arrived in
London. We do know that Shakespeare established himself in the
London theater by 1592. He had become both an actor and a playwright
with London's most prestigious theatrical troupe, the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, headquartered in the first professional theater
building built since the fall of the Roman Empire. It was called,
simply, The Theater.

Open to the sky, The Theater had a large platform stage bounded on
three sides by the audience. The stage was large (over thirty feet
across), and was divided into upper and lower acting levels.
Entrances and exits were made through two or three doors at the rear
of the platform, into the "tiring house" where costumes were changed
and speeches rehearsed. Scenery was kept at a bare minimum--a table
and two benches might suggest a scene indoors or a tree represent a
whole forest. The actors wore splendid costumes, however, and the
acting style would have been broad and lively. Teenage boys played
the women's parts. A gallery of musicians accompanied the actors,
and the sound of battle was reproduced with effects backstage.

The audience would have been a cross-section of Londoners. Unruly
apprentices stood on the ground around the stage, while merchants,
fashionable women, and courtiers sat in three tiers of seats.

In the palaces along the River Thames Queen Elizabeth I ruled
England amid a magnificent court. In an age when monarchs held
absolute power, England was lucky to have such a queen. Elizabeth
was a brilliant, outspoken, strong-willed woman, and a crafty
politician who loved her country. Elizabeth I's reign was long (1558-
1603) and dynamic, if not always peaceful. England had recently--
under the reign of her sister, Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary")--been a
Catholic country. Now it was Protestant and Puritan. But Elizabeth
still had many Catholic enemies, such as northern England's powerful
lords, and her cousin Queen Mary of Scotland. In 1569 the northern
lords had rebelled against Elizabeth. They were defeated, but in the
following year the Duke of Norfolk unsuccessfully attempted a coup
to depose Elizabeth and place her Catholic cousin on the throne.