It´s time for Carnival! This year we conmemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quijote de la Mancha". So we are going to dress up as don Quijote, Sancho Panza, Dulcinea, Cervantes, some nobles of that time, ... As you probably know, William Shakespeare was another famous writer, but he wasn´t Spanish, he was English. Shakespeare died on the same day as Cervates (23rd of April) that´s why we celebrate World´s Book Day on this date. So we also conmemorate the death of Shakespeare. But who was him?
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He got married to Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and they had 3 children: a girl called Susanna and 2 twins. Then he moved to London where he worked as an actor. In those times, women could not act in plays, so men dressed up as women.
He also wrote many plays: comedies and tragedies. Some of the most famous are: "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet", "Othello", "A Midsummer Night´Dream", "The Tempest"... From these plays we have got some very famous quotes: "To be or not to be, that is the question" or "Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo?". Apart from the plays, he also wrote 154 sonnets.
He became rich and he helped build the Globe Theatrre in London in 1599. That theatre was round and people could have a seat or could stand close to the stage. The audience also participated in the play shouting, clapping, booing, ...
Shakespeare created many new words. It is said that he introduced about 1,700 words in English language. Many of his expressions are still used today. He died when he was 52 years old.
