461 years ago today, April 23, 1564 (March 13, 1564 lunar calendar), Shakespeare's birthday. Shakespeare's statue (April 23, 1564 - May 3, 1616) William Shakespeare was the greatest dramatist and poet of the European Renaissance. His works made bourgeois humanism the most fully expressed and artistic. Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 (455 years ago) to a merchant family in Stratford, central England. He went to school at the age of 7 and dropped out at the age of 16 due to the growing poverty of his family. After that, he apprenticed to a butcher's house and taught in the countryside. He was later convicted of poaching deer and rabbits in the fields of the local rich and security officer, so he left his family and fled to London, where he watched horses in theaters, worked as a handyman, and started writing plays. At first, some professional screenwriters ridiculed him for not having a decent education, "knowing only a little Latin and very little Greek", and being "a raven among the white doves". Shakespeare ignored these ridicule, and worked hard to create art, which soon became an outstanding figure. He wrote many plays and poems throughout his life, and has passed down 37 plays, 2 chief poems, and 154 sonnets. In Shakespeare's early creations, his humanist ideas and unique artistic style gradually formed, which brilliantly reflected the colorful picture of British society. " Romeo and Juliet reflects the conflict between humanists' ideal of love and feudal vices, and embodies Shakespeare's thought of individual liberation. The Merchant of Venice in the same period sharply satirizes the extreme egoistic nature of loan sharks, which has profound social significance. The mark of Shakespeare's creative peak is four major tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Among them, Hamlet can be called the best tragedy in the world, and the protagonist Hamlet has become one of the most complex literary models. Shakespeare turned to the creation of miraculous dramas in his later years, hoping for a utopian ideal world. His works include Cymbelin and The Tempest. The artistic characteristics of Shakespeare's plays are mainly in the perfect combination of vividness and richness of the plot. The characters have a high degree of typicality, and at the same time have rich and colorful personality characteristics. The ideas of the works are naturally expressed through the plot characters. Shakespeare is also a master of language. He absorbs the language of the people, as well as the ancient and contemporary literary language, and uses it with ease. The play uses prose and poetry, without rigidity. Many of his words and phrases have become part of the English language. Shakespeare was called "the soul of the times" by his contemporaries, and Marx also called Shakespeare "the greatest theatrical genius". Shakespeare died in 1616. Interestingly, his birthday and death date are on April 23. Such a coincidence is extremely rare. The British people not only hold commemorative activities every year, but also hold a "Shakespeare Festival" every other year. Now, the "Shakespeare Festival" is not only popular in the UK, but also gradually transcends national borders, and many countries hold similar activities. Shakespeare's bronze statue Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire is Shakespeare's hometown. Stills of Shakespeare's play "Macbeth", stills of Shakespeare's play "Please Enter the Urn" by the Central Academy of Drama, and illustrations of Shakespeare's play "Othello" by the Beijing People's Art Theatre