Prince-Children's literature assistant reading

Author: Editorial Committee of "Children's Literature Companion"
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: [William Shakespeare (1564–1616)] William Shakespeare was a renowned English playwright and poet. Born into a wealthy merchant family in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, he attended the local grammar school. At the age of 13, his family fell into financial hardship, forcing him to drop out of school and take up business. Around 1586, he moved to London. Initially, he worked as a stable boy for noble customers outside the theater, gradually progressing to become a theater servant, actor, playwright, and shareholder. In 1597, he purchased property in his hometown and spent his final years there. Shakespeare was the most celebrated English writer of the late 16th to early 17th centuries (Ben Jonson called him "the soul of the age") and the epitome of humanist literature during the European Renaissance. He wrote a total of 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long poems, and other verses. The long poems Venus and Adonis (1592–1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1593–1594) were inspired by the works of Roman poet Virgil, exploring themes of the irresistible power of love and condemning bestial acts that violate the concept of "honor." His sonnets (1592–1598) often took the form of continuous sequences, celebrating friendship and love. His main achievement was drama, which can be divided into three periods—early, middle, and late—based on the development of time, thought, and artistic style.
In the royal court's garden, King Hamlet of Denmark suddenly died. Claudius, the king's younger brother, soon plotted to ruin the young prince Hamlet. After cunningly seizing the highest power in Denmark, he also married his brother's wife, becoming Hamlet's stepfather. One day, while on the castle, the prince witnessed his father's ghost and heard Claudius's sinister account of how he had treacherously murdered the old king. Hamlet swore by the morning light to kill Claudius and avenge his father's death. Claudius, now seated on the throne, grew increasingly restless and saw Hamlet as a thorn in his side. He devised a vicious trap, arranging for Laertes to murder young Hamlet with a poisoned sword. During a fencing match, the poisoned prince, in his final moments, used the very sword that had wounded him to furiously kill Claudius and Laertes. At that moment, Hamlet's mother also accidentally drank poison.