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The history of English in ten minutes. Chapter three, Shakespeare, or a plaque on both his houses.
十分钟内了解英国历史。第三章，莎士比亚，或曰两处住所的纪念碑。（注1）

As the dictionary tells us about 2,000 new words and phrases were invented by William Shakespeare.
就如字典告诉我们的，大约2000个新单词和短语是莎士比亚造出来的。

He gave us handy words like eyeball, puppydog and anchovy and more show-offy words like dauntless, besmirch and lacklustre. He came up with the word alligator soon after he ran out of the things to rhyme with crocodile. And the nation of tea drinkers finally took into their hearts when he invented the hob-nob.
他留给我们一些随处可见的词，如“眼球”，“小狗”和“鳀鱼”，以及更多卖弄炫技的词，如“无所畏惧”，“玷污”和“暗淡无光”。他遍寻事物来与“鳄鱼”(crocodile)押韵，最终想出来“短吻鳄”(alligator)这个词。他创造出了“共饮”这个词，遂在英国这个品茶爱好者的国度深得人心。

Shakespeare knew the power of catchphrases as well as biscuits. Without him, we would never eat our flesh and blood out of house and home. We would have to say good riddance to the green-eyed monster and breaking the ice would be as dead as a doornail.
莎士比亚对名言妙语的力量了如指掌，没有他，我们将永远不会把我们的“亲骨肉”“吃穷”，我们将“如释重负地摆脱”“妒忌”，而“打破僵局”将“死得确定无疑”。

If you tried to get your money's worth, you'd be given short shrift and anyone who laid it on with a trowel could be hoised with his own petard. Of course it's possible other people used these words first. But the dictionary writers like looking them up in Shakespeare because there was more cross dressing and people poking each other's eyes out.
如果你想要“花钱划得来”，你会受到“忽视”；而“过分吹捧”别人的人可能是“搬起石头砸了自己的脚”。当然有可能其他人首先用了这些词，但是字典编纂者们喜欢在莎士比亚书里查找，因为这里有更多“穿异性服装”的人和“戳瞎彼此眼睛”的人。

Shakespeare's poetry showed the world that English was a rich vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power and he still had time to open all those tea rooms in Stratford.
莎士比亚的诗歌向世界展示：英语是一门拥有无限表现力和情感力量的语言，并且他仍有时间在斯特拉特福德（莎士比亚诞生地）开了那么多家茶室。

注1：a plaque on both his houses 由 a plague on both your houses 演变而来，后者出自莎士比亚戏剧《罗密欧与朱丽叶》第三幕第一场。