By David Cameron

Shakespeare Lives

This years 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare is not just an opportunity to commemorate one of the greatest playwrights of all time.1 It is a moment to celebrate the extraordinary ongoing influence of a man who—to borrow from his own description of Julius Caesar—“doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.”2

Shakespeares legacy is without parallel：3 his works translated into over 100 languages and studied by half the worlds schoolchildren. As one of his contemporaries， Ben Jonson， said： “Shakespeare is not of an age， but for all time.”4 He lives today in our language， our culture and society—and through his enduring5 influence on education.

Shakespeare played a critical6 role in shaping modern English and helping to make it the worlds language. The first major dictionary compiled by Samuel Johnson drew on Shakespeare more than any other writer.7 Three thousand new words and phrases all first appeared in print in Shakespeares plays. I remember from my own childhood how many of them are found for the first time in Henry V 8. Words like dishearten， divest， addiction， motionless， leapfrog—and phrases like “once more unto the breach”， “band of brothers” and “heart of gold”—have all passed into our language today with no need to reference their original context.9 Shakespeare also pioneered innovative use of grammatical form and structure—including verse without rhymes， superlatives and the connecting of existing words to make new words， like bloodstained—while the pre-eminence of his plays also did much to standardise spelling and grammar.10

But Shakespeares influence is felt far beyond our language. His words， his plots11 and his characters continue to inspire much of our culture and wider society. Nelson Mandela， while a prisoner on Robben Island， cherished a quote from Julius Caesar which said “Cowards die many times before their death， the valiant never taste of death but once.”12 While Kate Tempests poem “My Shakespeare” captures the eternal presence of Shakespeare when she wrote that Shakespeare13 “…is in every lover who ever stood alone beneath a window… every jealous whispered word and every ghost that will not rest.” Shakespeares influence is everywhere， from Dickens and Goethe to Tchaikovsky， Verdi and Brahms； from West Side Story to the Hamlet-inspired title of Agatha Christies The Mousetrap—the longest-running theatre production in Londons West End today.14 While his original plays continue to entertain millions—from school halls across the world to the overnight queues as hundreds scrambled for last minute tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet at Londons Barbican last year.15

But perhaps one of the most exciting legacies of Shakespeare is his capacity to educate. As we see from the outreach work of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeares Globe and the impact of pioneering British charities like the Shakespeare Schools Festival， studying and performing Shakespeare can help improve literacy， confidence and wider educational attainment.16

Beyond the great gift of language， the bringing to life of our history， his ongoing influence on our culture and his ability to educate， there is just the immense17 power of Shakespeare to inspire. From the most famous love story to the greatest tragedy； from the most powerful fantasy to the wittiest comedy； and from the most memorable speeches to his many legendary characters， in William Shakespeare we have one man， whose vast imagination， boundless creativity and instinct for humanity encompasses the whole of the human experience as no one has before or since.18

1. anniversary： 周年紀(jì)念日；commemorate： 紀(jì)念；playwright： 劇作家。

2. 這也是向他永存于世的影響力致敬的時(shí)刻。莎士比亞的存在，借用他對尤利烏斯·愷撒的描述，“像巨人一樣橫跨在這狹窄的世界上”。 extraordinary： 非凡的，卓越的；ongoing： 持續(xù)存在的；Julius Caesar： 尤利烏斯·愷撒，即愷撒大帝，羅馬帝國的奠基者，該句中引用的話出自莎士比亞戲劇作品《尤利烏斯·愷撒》；doth： does的舊時(shí)寫法；bestride： 跨坐；Colossus： 巨人。

3. legacy： 遺產(chǎn)；without parallel： 無與倫比的。

4. 與他同時(shí)代的劇作家本·瓊森曾說道：“莎士比亞超越了時(shí)代，并將永世不朽?！眂ontemporary： 同時(shí)代的人；Ben Jonson： 本·瓊森（1572—1637），英格蘭文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期劇作家、詩人，代表作有《福爾蓬奈》（Volpone）和《煉金士》（The Alchemist）。

5. enduring： 持久的。

6. critical： 極重要的。

7. compile： 編纂；Samuel Johnson： 塞繆爾·約翰遜（1709—1784），英國作家、文學(xué)評論家和詩人，1755年編成《英語大辭典》，是美國韋氏大詞典問世前最具權(quán)威性的英文詞典；draw on： 吸收。

8. Henry V： 《亨利五世》，莎士比亞基于英格蘭國王亨利五世的生平，于1599年創(chuàng)作的著名歷史劇。

9. 像dishearten、divest、addiction、motionless、leap-frog這些詞，和once more unto the breach、band of brothers、heart of gold這些短語都沿用至今，成為了大家無需參考語境即認(rèn)識的詞匯。dishearten： 使沮喪；divest： 剝奪；addiction： 上癮；motionless： 靜止不動的；leapfrog： 躍過；once more unto the breach： 共赴戰(zhàn)場，breach指“突破口，缺口”；band of brothers： 兄弟連；heart of gold： 善良的心；reference： 參考，查閱；context： 語境。

10. pioneer： 倡導(dǎo)，當(dāng)開拓者；verse： 詩；rhyme： 押韻； superlative：（形容詞或副詞的）最高級；bloodstained： 血污的；pre-eminence： 卓越； standardise： 使標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化。

11. plot： 故事情節(jié)。

12. 納爾遜·曼德拉在羅本島服刑時(shí)常以《尤利烏斯·愷撒》中的話激勵(lì)自己：“懦夫一生死多次，勇者一生死一回”。Nelson Mandela： 納爾遜·曼德拉，于1994年至1999年間任南非總統(tǒng)，是首位黑人總統(tǒng)，被尊稱為“南非國父”；Robben Island： 羅本島，曾為監(jiān)獄關(guān)押犯人，現(xiàn)為旅游勝地；coward： 懦夫；valiant： 勇士。

13. capture： 逼真地表現(xiàn)，再現(xiàn)；eternal： 不朽的，永恒的。

14. 該句中提到的人物依次為英國作家狄更斯（Dickens）、德國作家歌德（Goethe）、俄羅斯作曲家柴可夫斯基（Tchaikovsky）、意大利作曲家威爾第（Verdi）、德國作曲家勃拉姆斯（Brahms）；提到的作品依次為舞臺劇《西區(qū)故事》（West Side Story）、《哈姆雷特》（Hamlet）和英國偵探作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂的《捕鼠器》（The Mousetrap）；Londons West End： 倫敦西區(qū)，是與紐約百老匯齊名的世界著名戲劇中心。

15. overnight： 夜間的，通宵的；scramble for： 爭奪，爭搶；Benedict Cumberbatch： 本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇，英國演員，英劇《神探夏洛克》男主角； Barbican： 英國倫敦巴比肯藝術(shù)中心，是歐洲最大的表演藝術(shù)中心之一。

16. outreach： 外展服務(wù)；Royal Shakespeare Company： 皇家莎士比亞劇團(tuán)，是英國乃至世界最具影響力的劇團(tuán)之一；Shakespeares Globe： 莎士比亞環(huán)球劇院，是英國戲劇藝術(shù)的中心，一座專為欣賞、研究莎士比亞及其同時(shí)代優(yōu)秀劇作家的作品的劇場；literacy： 讀寫能力；attainment： 成就，造詣。

17. immense： 巨大的。

18. fantasy： 想象，幻想；witty： 妙趣橫生的；legendary： 享有盛名的；instinct： 本能，直覺；encompass： 包含。