英国首相撰文：永恒的莎士比亚_时事

英国首相撰文：永恒的莎士比亚

莎翁在构建现代英语，使之成为全球通用语方面发挥了关键作用。塞缪尔·约翰逊编纂的《英语大辞典》中引用莎翁的句子，比其他作家都多。莎翁剧本中创造的英语新词、新短语多达三千。历史剧《亨利五世》中不少第一次出现的词，如dishearten、divest、addiction、 motionless和leapfrog，以及短语，如 once more unto the breach、band of brothers和heart of gold，都沿用至今，成了耳熟能详的词汇。他在语法形式和结构方面亦有创新，如无韵诗、最高级和组合现有词汇形成新词方面

But Shakespeare's influence is felt far beyond our language. His words, his plots 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.” While Kate Tempest's poem “My Shakespeare” captures the eternal presence of Shakespeare when she wrote that Shakespeare “…is in every lover who ever stood alone beneath a window…every jealous whispered word and every ghost that will not rest.” Shakespeare's influence is everywhere, from Dickens and Goethe to Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Brahms; from West Side Story to the Hamlet-inspired title of Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” – the longest-running theatre production in London's West End today. 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 London's Barbican last year.