Happy Talk Like Shakespeare Day!

April 23rd, known as William Shakespeare’s birthday, is now also when the world celebrates, “Talk Like Shakespeare Day!” His baptism was April 26, 1564 in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where he is also buried. I am grateful to my niece Bethany and her husband Andrew for taking me to that quaint, beautiful town.

Shakespeare’s father was a glovemaker-alderman and his mother was landed gentry. William was educated in the local grammar school, but his writings on politics, history, royalty, and nations are so superb, many wonder if someone with more education wrote some or much of his work. However, no other contributor is known.

In 1588, Shakespeare went to London as an actor and playwright. Within six years, he was a partner in a London theater troupe.

He is credited with writing 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and narrative epic poems. Four centuries later, many of his unforgettable characters live on in world literature’s hall of fame.

I once wrote a paper on Shakespeare’s inclusion of jolly John Falstaff in three plays as the author’s hint that the buffoon is someone to laugh at but a “false staff” to lean on in life. Falstaff does recite Psalm 23 and a sinner’s prayer before dying offstage in Henry V.

The Oxford English Dictionary credits the bard with inventing “3,000 new words and contributing more phrases and sayings to the English language than any other individual.” Here are some we hear often: “a fool’s paradise,” “a sorry sight,” “dead as a doornail,” “Greek to me,” “come what may,” “eaten out of house and home,” “forever and a day,” “heart’s content,” “slept a wink,” “love is blind,” “night owl,” “wild goose chase,” “into thin air,” etc., etc.

Shakespeare’s gift influences our culture deeply. My personal favorite is the masterful funeral crowd control speech he gives Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.

Which character, play, or phrase is your favorite and why?

May we all enjoy him more before his birthday rolls around again!