National Talk Like Shakespeare Day
Forsooth, good citizen! April 23 is the Bard's birthday — and the day every one of us is invited to speak like him. Thee, thou, prithee, and a flourish.
Why it matters
HARK, GOOD CITIZEN!
It’s the Bard’s birthday and thy invitation to join a 400-year-old linguistic party. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 — and he died on April 23, 1616. The most symmetric birthday-deathday in English literature. We celebrate with every “prithee” and “forsooth” we can muster.
The Story
Four centuries after his death, William Shakespeare is still the most-quoted, most-produced, most-translated, and most-endlessly-argued-about writer in the English language. He is, in effect, a holiday.
Born in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564 (no one recorded the exact date, but his baptism on April 26 suggests he was born around April 23 — and that’s the date tradition has chosen). He married Anne Hathaway at 18, had three children, and by his late 20s was already writing plays for London’s most successful theater company. He would eventually write 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 long narrative poems before dying — by astonishing coincidence — on April 23, 1616, his 52nd birthday.
The impact on English is impossible to overstate. Shakespeare invented or popularized roughly 1,700 words we still use today — eyeball, gossip, lonely, bedroom, dishearten, lackluster, swagger, frugal, majestic, gnarled. And hundreds of phrases: “break the ice,” “wild goose chase,” “heart of gold,” “all’s well that ends well,” “the world’s your oyster.”
National Talk Like Shakespeare Day was founded in 2009 by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Mayor Richard M. Daley, who issued an official proclamation encouraging “all Chicagoans” to speak like the Bard on April 23. The idea caught on nationwide — part literary tribute, part permission slip to speak with a little extra flourish. Shakespeare himself would have loved it. The man made his living entertaining crowds who showed up half-drunk to watch people duel in rhymed verse.
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Words to Wield Today
Four rules for doing this properly:
Thee & Thou
Thee is “you” (object). Thou is “you” (subject). Thy is “your.” Thine is “yours.” Use these correctly and you instantly sound smart.
Prithee & Pray
Prithee = “pray thee” = “please.” Use where you’d normally say “could you” — prithee pass the salt. Elegant.
Methinks
Methinks = “I think” but classier. “Methinks that meeting could have been an email.” Try it; everyone will smile.
Verb-Subject Flip
Instead of “I must go,” say “go I must.” Instead of “he is strong,” say “strong is he.” Yoda was borrowing this from the Bard.
Enter The Plays
Six plays to know, and which one to start with depending on your mood:
Did You Know?!
You’ve quoted him without knowing.
“Wild goose chase,” “heart of gold,” “a fool’s paradise,” “in a pickle,” “too much of a good thing” — all Shakespeare. You’ve been a Bardist your whole life.
His signature is one of the world’s most valuable autographs.
Only six authenticated Shakespeare signatures survive. The last one sold (a legal document, 1616) is estimated at over $5 million.
Macbeth is cursed. (Allegedly.)
Theater superstition forbids saying “Macbeth” inside a theater. Call it “The Scottish Play” instead. Accidents during productions of the play are documented over 400 years.
The Globe Theatre burned down in 1613.
A cannon special effect in Henry VIII set the thatched roof on fire. One man’s breeches caught flame — another man put them out with his bottle of ale. Theater.
Read (or Watch)
Will in the World
Stephen Greenblatt · 2004
The most readable Shakespeare biography. Reads like a novel. Makes you want to start a Shakespeare book club.
Shakespeare Stories
Leon Garfield · 1985
Retellings of 21 plays in lively prose. Bought for kids; secretly read by adults. Still the best introduction for ages 8–14.
The Invention of the Human
Harold Bloom · 1998
Bloom’s ambitious claim: Shakespeare invented what we now call “personality.” Wildly opinionated, richly rewarding.
Pair It With
Branagh’s Henry V (1989) or Hamlet (1996). Both are essential.
Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited — plays, history, scholars, all accessible.
Your local Shakespeare festival. Most cities have one. Free in the park, many.
A pint of bitter. Shakespeare drank ale. So shall ye.
Fair Thee Well!
Share thy best Bard-speak: tag @celebrationnation with #TalkLikeShakespeareDay. Forsooth.
How to celebrate
Play along — the rules are loose, the spirit is generous:
- 🎭 Use one Shakespearean phrase today. "Prithee," "forsooth," "good morrow," "methinks," "anon" — pick one and wield it shamelessly.
- 📖 Read aloud. Ten minutes from any play. Shakespeare was written to be spoken, not scanned silently.
- 🎟️ See a performance. Your local Shakespeare festival, a community theater, or a filmed version on streaming. The plays land differently when you watch them.
- ✉️ Write a love note in sonnet form. 14 lines, iambic pentameter-ish, end on a rhyming couplet. Send it to someone.
- 🃏 Memorize one line. "All the world's a stage," "We are such stuff as dreams are made on," "The course of true love never did run smooth." Carry it with you.
Celebration ideas by audience
For families
Shakespeare insult dinner: every family member pulls a line from an insult generator and hurls it across the table. Kids love this. No actual feelings get hurt — "thou mewling, earth-vexing nut-hook" is too absurd to wound.
For kids
Storybook versions of the plays exist and are genuinely good — start with Leon Garfield's or Marcia Williams's illustrated retellings. Kids come away quoting full lines.
For couples
Read Sonnet 18 to each other at dinner. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is unembarrassable because it's 400 years old.
At the office
Team Shakespeare-themed virtual background day. Or just end every Slack message with "adieu." Morale instrument.
At school
Staged reading of one scene. Macbeth's "Is this a dagger," Mercutio's "Queen Mab," Hamlet's "To be." Everyone gets a role; everyone reads.
In your community
Public library Shakespeare-in-the-park day — picnic blankets, passed-around scripts, a volunteer director. Free, welcoming, and gets people reading out loud.
On your own
Pour a glass. Pick a play you've never read. Read one act tonight — aloud, with the dog as audience. No exam, no paper. Just the language.
More to celebrate
National Hug a Newsperson Day
National Hug a Newsperson Day is a small celebration of the people who still love a book, a letter, a well-turned sentence.