National Talk Like Shakespeare Day is observed annually on April 23. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. He is the author of some of the world’s most celebrated plays and poems.

Learn About Shakespeare

Short Story Videos of Shakespeare’s Plays

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3:30)
• Hamlet (3:18)
• Macbeth (3:52)
• Much Ado About Nothing (3:30)
• Romeo and Juliet (3:27)
• Twelfth Night (3:43)

Interactive Websites to Learn More

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/william_shakespeare/
• https://www.dkfindout.com/us/music-art-and-literature/shakespeares-globe/william-shakespeare/

Activities

Talk Like Shakespeare!

You might find that you already do talk like Shakepeare! Shakespeare created many new phrases and words that we still use today. For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare.

• All that glitters is not gold (The Merchant of Venice)(“glisters”)

• All’s well that ends well (title)

• As good luck would have it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

• Better foot before (“best foot forward”) (King John)

• Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)

• Catch a cold (Cymbeline; claimed but seems unlikely, seems to refer to bad weather)

• Come what come may (“come what may”) (Macbeth)

• Dead as a doornail (2 Henry VI)

• Dog will have his day (Hamlet; quoted earlier by Erasmus and Queen Elizabeth)

• Eaten me out of house and home (2 Henry IV)

• Faint hearted (I Henry VI)

• For goodness’ sake (Henry VIII)

• Full circle (King Lear)

• The game is up (Cymbeline)

• Give the devil his due (I Henry IV)

• Good riddance (Troilus and Cressida)

• It was Greek to me (Julius Caesar)

• Heart of gold (Henry V)

• In a pickle (The Tempest)

• In my mind’s eye (Hamlet)

• It is but so-so(As You Like It)

• Kill with kindness (Taming of the Shrew)

• Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth)

• Laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

• Laugh yourself into stitches (Twelfth Night)

• Live long day (Julius Caesar)

• Love is blind (Merchant of Venice)

• Melted into thin air (The Tempest)

• Though this be madness, yet there is method in it (“There’s a method to my madness”) (Hamlet)

• Much Ado About Nothing (title)

• Neither rhyme nor reason (As You Like It)

• Not slept one wink (Cymbeline)

• One fell swoop (Macbeth)

• Out of the jaws of death (Twelfth Night)

• Own flesh and blood (Hamlet)

• Star-crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet)

• Parting is such sweet sorrow (Romeo and Juliet)

• [What] a piece of work [is man] (Hamlet)

• A plague on both your houses (Romeo and Juliet)

• Snail paced (Troilus and Cressida)

• A sorry sight (Macbeth)

• Such stuff as dreams are made on (The Tempest)

• Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep (“Still waters run deep”) (2 Henry VI)

• The short and the long of it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

• There’s no such thing (?) (Macbeth)

• There’s the rub (Hamlet)

• Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)

• Wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)

• What the dickens (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

• What’s done is done (Macbeth)

• Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

• The world’s my oyster (Merry Wives of Windsor)

Here’s a link to more phrases and words invented by Shakespeare!