Hello everyone, this week we will explore a listening piece about one of the legends, who is regarded as one of the most outstanding figures the world has ever produced, named William Shakespeare: Known and Unknown!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - the most famous poet and playwright in the history of England, someone who is known as a man with thoughts ahead of his time. The ideas and implications in his works are still reflected quite realistically and accurately in today’s society.

The poet of Avon - Shakespeare lived over 400 years ago, he came from a family with a father in the shoe-making profession, Shakespeare’s life was connected with theater from the very first time his father took him to see a local performance.

No one knows the exact information about Shakespeare; we only acknowledge that he was born in Avon in 1564. At 18, Shakespeare married a woman named Anne Hathaway. A few years later, he left Stratford for London, where he joined a theatre group called “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men” - a theater group that became very popular at that time as they frequently performed especially for the leaders of England such as Queen Elizabeth or King James I.

Shakespeare’s works are very diverse in genres: there are history plays, very funny plays... but his tragic works truly are masterpieces: Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet are masterpieces that we surely have heard of and know.

In his 52 years of life, Shakespeare left approximately 38 plays and hundreds of poems (among which the most famous are the sonnets); additionally, he also left for the world’s language “Shakespeare’s English” - a very interesting term!