Helen: This is a round building.

Zoë: It looks old and yet quite new too.

Helen: And it has an open theatre inside.

Zoë: 这就是我们今天要向大家介绍的莎士比亚环球剧场。

Helen: The Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the River Thames in the centre of London.

Zoë: 大家好，我是刘佳。

Helen: Hello, I’m Helen. Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English.

Zoë: 在我们今天的 BBC Learning English 节目当中，我们会和大家一起来了解一下英国的著名的莎士比亚环球剧场的光辉历史。

Helen: Now just to set the record straight, the Globe Theatre we are seeing today is a marvellous reconstruction¹. The original Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire 393 years ago on June 29th 1613.

Zoë: 是吗？最早的剧场 393 年前被一场大火给烧毁了。那现在的这个环球剧场是重建的，a reconstruction.

Helen: And to answer our questions about the Globe Theatre is Patrick Spottiswoode, the Director of Globe Education.

Zoë: Patrick 是环球剧场的教育部负责人，首先我们请他描绘了一下环球剧场的结构。

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It is a round building. It is in fact a twenty-sided wooden O, a polygonal² O. And it is made of oak in the main, and it's an open air O so people gather round in the theatre to hear a play.

Zoë: Patrick 形容环球剧场的形状是一个有 20 面的木头O 字形建筑。

Helen: A twenty-sided wooden O, and Patrick used a special phrase to describe this shape – a polygonal O.

Zoë: 多边形的，polygonal. 这是一个木材建筑，主要用的木材是橡树木。

Helen: That’s oak. Oak is a very durable³ and hard wood. It’s commonly used in buildings and also for furniture in the UK.

Zoë: 因为环球剧院是没有顶的，这样大家就可以围着舞台，享受露天戏剧演出。这种演出方式英国人称之为...

Helen: Open air plays. The shows are performed outside, so we call it open air plays.

Zoë: 我们刚才已经提到最早的环球剧场在 1613 年被大火烧掉了。那Patrick 能不能介绍一下那个时期的环球剧场的历史是怎样的呢？

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Well, it was built in 1599 and Shakespeare and a group of actors put money together to build the theatre. It was the first time ever in England actors had paid to build a theatre. So that was very special.

Zoë: 这么说原来的Globe Theatre 是 1599 年修建的。是莎士比亚还有其他一些演员一起出钱修的。

Helen: And it was the first time ever in England that actors used their own money to build a theatre.

Zoë: 以前的社会虽然很喜欢看戏，但是对演员们并不尊重，所以环球剧场的修建也是就有历史性的意义， 这代表了当时的演艺界有了自己可以随意发挥的空间。

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And it became the number one theatre in London as Shakespeare's company became the number one acting⁴ company of London. So it became from 1599 as the number one venue⁵ for theatre and certainly the number one venue for Shakespeare's plays until 1613.

Zoë: 后来环球剧场随着莎士比亚的剧团的发展，在伦敦的名气越来越大。

Helen: It became the number one venue for theatre.

Zoë: 这里就成了伦敦第一的剧院， the number one venue. Venue 就是地方，地点的意思。

Helen: The original Globe Theatre provided great entertainment to the public for over 13 years before tragedy struck.

Zoë: 是啊，这个大火到底是怎么回事儿啊？

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And in 1613 they put on a play about Henry VIII and they had a cannon⁶ effect to announce the arrival of the king on stage. But it was a special effect that went badly wrong because a spark from the cannon flew up and hit the roof which is made of thatch⁷. It caught fire and the theatre burnt to the ground during a performance.

Helen: Now we know how the fire started. The theatre was burnt down during a performance.

Zoë: 原来就是一场演出把环球剧场给毁了。是1613年上演莎士比亚的亨利八世的时候，为了用大炮做一个音响效果。

Helen: A special sound effect, a cannon firing to announce the arrival of the king on stage.

Zoë: 结果这个大炮爆出来的火花溅上了屋顶。 你想那可了得，整个屋顶都是用稻草铺的。

Helen: Thatch roof made of dried grass. As you can imagine, fire and dried grass don’t mix, and the theatre was destroyed very quickly.

Zoë: 结果，一场亨利八世的表演就把莎士比亚的环球剧场烧为平地了。

Helen: Luckily for all of us today, the theatre has been rebuilt and it is a wonderful place to be.

Zoë: 对喜欢英国文学的朋友来说，今后有机会到伦敦的话，在环球剧场里听一出莎翁戏剧，那就不旺伦敦一行了。

Helen: So until next time, it’s goodbye from both of us at BBC Learning English.

Zoë: Bye.