William shakespeare

The last half of the XVI and the beginning of the XVII enturies are known as the golden age of English litera­ture. It was the time of the English Renaissance, and sometimes it is even called «the age of Shakespeare».

William Shakespeare, the greatest and most famous of English writers, and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived, was born in Straford-on-Avon. We know very little about his life. The things that we know about Shakespeare's life begin with the date when he was baptised in the church of Stratford, on April 26, 1564, when he was only a few days old. So he is believed to have been born on April 23.

Though little is known about William's childhood, there is every reason to believe that he was educated at the local Grammar School. When little over eighteen he married Anne Halthaway of Shottery.

William lived in Stratford until he was about twenty-one, when he went to London. We do not know why he left Stratford-on-Avon.

There is a story that Shakespeare's first job in Lon­don was holding rich men's horses at the theatre door. But nobody can be sure that this story is true.

Later, Shakespeare became an actor and a member of one of the chief acting companies. Soon he began to write plays for this company and in a few years became a well-known author.

Shakespeare's experience as an actor (although he usually acted only small parts, like the Ghost in Hamlet) helped him greatly in the writing of his plays. His knowl­edge of the stage and his poetical genius made his plays the most wonderful ones ever written.

Shakespeare's wrote 37 plays. Among them there are deep tragedies, such as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, light comedies, such as All's Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, historical dramas, such as Henry IV, Richard III.

Most of Shakespeare's plays were not published in his lifetime. So some of them may have been lost in the fire when the «Globe» burned down in 1613.

Shakespeare's 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 Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Christopher columbus

In the fifteenth century people knew only three conti­nents: Europe, Asia and Africa. They knew nothing about such a big continent as America.

The man who was thought to be the discoverer of America was born in 1451 in Italy. His name was Chris­topher Columbus. He probably worked as a weaver be­fore going to sea.

At that time the life of a sailor was full of adventure and danger, so Columbus had many exciting experienc­es. Once during a battle with a vessel off the coast of Por­tugal, he had to leave his boat and swim to the shore a long distance away. He afterwards lived in Portugal a number of years, and while there, he married the daugh­ter of a sea captain. For some time he earned his living, partly by making sea voyages, and partly by drawing maps and selling them.

Knowing that the earth was round, he decided to reach India by sailing to the west. It was very difficult for him to organise his expedition as nobody wanted to help him. Many years after, the Spanish government gave him some money for his expedition.

In 1492 he sailed with three small ships into the At­lantic Ocean. They had been sailing for more than two months. At last they saw land.

When they landed they saw strange trees and flow­ers. Men and women with olive coloured skins gathered around them and looked at them with great surprise.

Columbus was certain that the lands he discovered were part of India, and he called these islands the West Indies. The people living there have been called Indians since then, though they have nothing in common with the real Indians — inhabitants of India.

His last voyage was made in 1502-1504. After that, seriously ill, he remained in Spain-until his death. He died believing that Cuba was part of Asia.