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Mark Forsyth argues Shakespeare wrote for a mass audience, not literary elites…

2026-08-05 · 19:45 UTC ·@PerellClips ·1 min read

Brief

David Perell shares Mark Forsyth’s contention that Shakespeare wrote for the masses—Globe capacity ~3,000 vs. London ~200,000, scaled to a 150,000-seat modern stadium—with cheap tickets accessible across classes, so readers needn’t understand every word. Perell supplements the claim with a recorded conversation and timestamps for 13 rhetorical techniques viewers can apply to their own writing.

Why it matters

Mark Forsyth argues Shakespeare wrote for a mass audience, not literary elites: the Globe held ~3,000 while London’s population was ~200,000, which Forsyth scales to a modern 150,000-seat stadium; tickets cost about the same as a loaf of bread and drew all social classes.

Key details

  • David Perell posted a full conversation with Mark Forsyth and timestamps 13 rhetorical techniques covered: Polyptoton; Chiasmus & Isocolon; Tricolon; Anaphora; Epistrophe; Synesthesia; Personification; Schesis Onomaton; Paradox; Veridical Paradox; Hyperbole; Iambic Pentameter, plus clips and links to YouTube/Apple/Spotify.
Source evidence

What if we are making poetry more complicated than it is? After all, Shakespeare wrote for the masses:

"People think you have to have a degree in English in order to understand poetry. Shakespeare wasn't writing for people with degrees in English, because degrees in English didn't exist."

"He was writing for a mass market who wanted to hear that beautiful sound. The Globe Theatre could take 3,000 people. The population of London at the time was 200,000. If you scale that up for today, the equivalent Globe would be a 150,000-seater stadium. And Shakespeare had to fill that every day."

"Tickets cost the same price as a loaf of bread. You had people from the underclass right up to the top of society, and they were all there to enjoy Shakespeare."

"You can't understand every word of Shakespeare unless you've got the text in front of you. That's ok. Just let it flow over you. You don't need to understand everything."

  • Mark Forsyth (@Inkyfool)

Video

David Perell (@david_perell)

Mark Forsyth is one of the world's leading experts on what makes a piece of writing memorable.

He's famous for a book called The Elements of Eloquence, which follows the writing strategy of writers like Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, and also musicians like the Beatles and Taylor Swift.

We went through these tools together, one by one, so you can use them in your own writing.

Timestamps:
Technique 1: Polyptoton
Techniques 2 & 3: Chiasmus and Isocolon
Technique 4: Tricolon
Technique 5: Anaphora
Technique 6: Epistrophe
Technique 7: Synesthesia
Technique 8: Personification
Technique 9: Schesis Onomaton
Technique 10: Paradox
Technique 11: Veridical Paradox
Technique 12: Hyperbole
Technique 13: Iambic Pentameter

I've shared the full conversation with Mark below. If you'd rather watch the full thing on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

I've shared clips from the conversation in the replies as well.

Video

— https://nitter.net/david_perell/status/2085085020452974884#m