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JENNIFER BASSETT
William Shakespeare
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Stratford-upon-Avon, 1578. A boy is sitting at a schooldesk. He listens to the teacher, reads his books, learns his lessons. What is he thinking about?
London, 1587. A young man is riding into London for the first time. He listens to the noise of the crowded streets, sees the great walls of the Tower of London, looks down at the waters of the River Thames. ‘Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.’
London, 1601. The boatmen on the River Thames are shouting to the crowds: ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry! The Globe theatre is filling fast!’ Two thousand people are crossing the river to see the latest play – Hamlet, by William Shakespeare.
This story about Shakespeare’s life is told by his friend Toby. Toby is not a real person – perhaps Shakespeare had a friend like that, but we don’t know. But all the other characters in the story were real people, who knew Will Shakespeare as a friend, actor, poet, and playwright. ‘Gentle Shakespeare,’ they called him, and they knew he was the greatest poet in England. His friend Ben Jonson wrote of him:
‘He was not of an age, but for all time.’
For my father
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DPOxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide inOxford New YorkAuckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei TorontoWith offices inArgentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamOXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis edition © Oxford University Press 2008The moral rights of the author have been assertedDatabase right Oxford University Press (maker)First published in Oxford Bookworms 19932 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveYou must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerAny websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the contentISBN 978 0 19 479076 5A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of William Shakespeare is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 478999 8ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Original illustrations by: Richard AllenThe publishers would like to thank the following for their permission to reproduce illustrations:Alamy Images pp15 (Henry Wriothesley 3rd Earl of Southampton/The Art Gallery Collection), 23 (Shakespeare New Place drawing/Mary Evans Picture Library), 30 (Title page for Hamlet/Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library); Bridgeman Art Library Ltd pp17 (God's Tokens, A Rod for Runaways, 1625, English School / Private Collection), 26 (The Kitchener Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c.1550, English School / Private Collection / © Mallett Gallery, London, UK), 36 (Portrait of Richard Burbage, English School / © Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK), 40 (Ben Jonson, Blyenberch, Abraham van / Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, CA, USA / © The Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens); Corbis pp3 (Birthplace of William Shakespeare/Roger de la Harpe), 35 (Portrait of King James I/Bettmann), 48 (Portrait of William Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout), 60 (Actors in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre/Steven Vidler/Eurasia Press); Getty Images p21 (1623 edition of William Shakespeare's First Folio/Graeme Robertson); The Art Archive p10 (View of London, engraving by Cornelis Visscher, 1616)Word count (main text): 9135 wordsFor more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormswww.oup.com/bookwormse-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478677 5e-Book first published 2012 
