7. Shakespeare’s bestselling work in his lifetime was not a play, but the now little-known erotic poem Venus and Adonis, particularly popular with (male) students. It was written when London’s theatres were closed because of plague, a period when Shakespeare’s income looked like it might evaporate.
7.莎士比亞最賣錢的作品不是他的劇作,而是他少有人知的情詩《維納斯和阿多尼斯》,這首詩在男學生中間廣受歡迎。這首詩是在倫敦的劇場因為瘟疫而被迫關閉期間寫的,那個時期莎士比亞的收入迅速縮水。