Elizabeth Raymond, age 12 of Albany for her question:

Why is Shakespeare's work so famous?

To be famous means to be well known and well known in a favorable way. It is some 340 years since William Shakespeare put down his quill pen for the last time. His work has been known and admired by each generation through all those years. It has: stood the test of time and with plenty of good reasons.

Shakespeare was a theatre manager, producer, actor, poet and playwright. He was famous in his lifetime, honored by royalty and recognized as outstanding even by his critics. Nowadays, of course, every detail of his glamorous life would be common knowledge, Then there were no movie magazines to write him up and show his picture to the public. His life was known and shared only by his friends. No one guessed that this busy man was creating the greatest of all literary work,

In a play by Shakespeare there is something for everyone. Young people, adults and old peoples gather around the TV when Laurence Olivier plays Hamlet. And no one says, I've seen that old play before, it would bore me to see it again. For there is always something new to be discovered. Why, I use that expression all the timel Here it is in Shakespeare. Did he invent it? If it expresses a great deal in neat words, the chances are he did. Even actors who play Shakespeare year after year are forever finding new aspects to enjoy.

You are twelve years old. Chances are you have seen a few of the plays, read a few and maybe memorized some passages. You can look forward to seeing these and others again time after time all your life. You will never be bores by the plays of Shakespeare.

Volumes have been written about this wonderful appeal in Shakespeare, Experts explain that he knew how to select a good plot and enfold it with great skill. He had a sense of stage and drama and holds our interest from first to last. He expresses every mood from jolly fun to heartache and we feel these r1oOds along with the actors as they sav their lines. In his writing the words. always so full of meaning within meaning' echo and re‑echo like bells in our ears.

All this great artistry is true, Others have had it, or almost had it; There is something extra that puts Shakespeare apart. He portrays characters, not puppets, telling a drama in beautiful poetry. Each is a person in his or her own right. As you watch a play unfold, you thinks if that happened to me, I would feel just as this character feels.

For above all, Shakespeare studied human nature and loved it. He was tolerant and understanding of all the characters he created. Perhaps this is the greatest reason we are never bored by those wonderful plays, As you know, there is always something new to find in an old friend, however well you know him or her. Shakespeare’s characters are as real as old friends because he knew human nature so very well.  As we watch and listen while they express themselves  we are helped to understand others ‑ and that means we are getting a better understanding of ourselves,