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National Talk Like Shakespeare Day 2025
Forsooth! This most hallowed 🐪 Day of the Hump 🐫 is right nobly set aside to honour the Queen’s own English—Queen Elizabeth, the First of her name, mark thee well. Prithee, be welcome and well met on this National Talk Like Shakespeare Day! There be merry japes and jolly revels awaiting us, dear friends. Let us away, anon!
A Brilliant Light
Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other. ~Edward Hall
Shakespeare is a cornerstone of English literature because he didn’t pigeonhole himself.
He has a broad corpus of poetry and plays. These dramatic works are still performed today.
He didn’t stick to one genre. He did history, romance, fantasy and social commentary with scathing wit and lasting artistry.
Some writers today will try that. Some will even succeed. Many fall short.
Others stick with their comfort zones. You get Masters of Horror or prolific Mavens of Romance.
That’s fine. If you found something that works, run with it.
But will people be saying your name five hundred years from now?
Actually, with the AI Age upon us, it’s actually hard to say.
A seemingly infinite capacity to store and recall may make timeless masters of so-so artists or it may memory-hole even the classics like Chaucer, Shakespeare and Twain.
No telling what the future may bring, but it will be better if people stretch their wings artistically and increase the wealth of human creativity overall.
Doeth It Righteth
How to talk like Shakespeare
It’s fun to do faux-Shakespearean for Renaissance Faires, civic theater, D&D characters or just for horsing around.
It sounds more artistic since we automatically associate it with William Shakespeare.
Of course, other people of Shakespeare’s day spoke that way (to a certain extent).
Naturally, Shakespeare’s characters sound polished because the Immortal Bard spent so much time polishing his prose, honing his craft and correcting his actors at the Globe Theatre.
Everything improves with intentional practice. Stick with it and your words will sing like a Shakespearean sonnet.
Of Genius And Commentators
If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators. ~William Hazlitt
Yes, we have period-accurate confirmation that Shakespeare had his own generation’s version of Redditors and Author-tubers.
There will always be people who criticize, mock and tear down one’s work.
Verily, opinions be as nether-holes—each soul is cursed or blessed with one alike.
That being the case, you have to decide who you give that power to.
Seeking the critique of a peer in order to polish your work is a good thing.
Reading unsolicited reviews of your work by people with no agenda but to propagate rage-porn is not.
I fell into this trap for a while. I watched certain channels when they were coming up with flashy, provocative titles.
Unfortunately, what started off as generally commenting on a genre or film studio gradually mutated into click-bait rage-porn.
Booooring!
I started off watching this one guy who had hot takes on some widely criticized works.
Then I realized he hated everything, absolutely everything.
I kept watching in the vain hope that he’d actually say he liked something. Anything.
Nope, all hate, all the time.
Boooooring!
Unsubscribed and do not recommend this channel.
Sometimes he pops up if I’m searching on something specific and I click the ellipsis button, ‘Do not recommend this channel’.
Poof! Banished.
If there is legitimate criticism to be leveled, fair enough.
If something has no redeeming qualities at all and all reviewers agree, fair enough.
Hating everything to keep your click rate up? Hard pass.
If you’re so astute at what is horrible, why not counterbalance it with something good?
Instead of hating everything, make something for us to love instead.
Complaining about weeds while planting no flowers to replace them is a tragic waste.
Honestly, if you think everything sucks and nobody has talent, show us how it’s done.
Or maybe just shut the fuck up. The world has enough whiners. No point in broadcasting it.
This day’s discourse is ended. Hie thee back upon Wednesday, when Kelly and I shall partake in delights we do most heartily enjoy.