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At Readable, we encourage you to communicate in a positive tone to leave a good lasting impression on your reader. However, occasionally in life, a good putdown is exactly what is needed. William Shakespeare was deft with wonderfully worded insults in his works. Here are some of our favourites. Cowardice Conjuring up spooky castle battlements and adding actions (a stab through the curtain to kill Polonius!) really immersed my class in the story; you could hear a pin drop.
If you’ve ever struggled to find the words to describe how angry or frustrated someone is making you, perhaps William Shakespeare, iconic writer and master of insults, can help. For Shakespeare fans with more niche interests, this Botanical Shakespeare: An Illustrated Compendium of All the Flowers, Fruits, Herbs, Trees, Seeds, and Grasses Cited by the World’s Greatest Playwright Book may be of interest. Henry V (Act 5, Scene 2) 24. “This woman’s an easy glove, my lord, she goes off and on at pleasure.” After creating your soundscape, use the sounds and emotions explored as the starting point for a simple three-line poem. As a society, we have to concede that not everybody is or was a cute baby. As someone whose parents say I looked like Churchill when they get the baby photos out, maybe my experience is just different, but there is something refreshing about parents rejecting the false cooing behaviour toward all babies. Admitting that their own children weren’t the most precious-looking beings that ever graced the earth. A thorough denigrationLaunch Shakespeare Week in your school with a special assembly filmed in Stratford-upon-Avon with kids’ TV presenter Ben Cajee. It takes place at 11am on Monday 20th March 2023. Students had the option to let another student in class read their insults aloud during the competition. So, the shy kids still participated but didn’t have to do something they found uncomfortable. All this breaks down the mystery of the distant language and opens up the possibilities of internalising the patterns and stances of the world’s greatest writer. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way
The vituperations in this list are not single jabs; they are nonstop thrashings. Take a look at number nine in this list, where Shakespeare strings together twenty pejoratives in a row!
When is Shakespeare Week?
I suggested that we try out some similar comparisons by thinking about someone we admired and then asking them with what they would like to be compared. When looking for presents for Shakespeare lovers, there are some fun pun options to choose from…like this Literary Can’t Even shirt! Use this Amazing Insults resource from Plazoom to explore the language he used to insult, and to create your own Shakespearean insults and infer their meaning. You have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness. ( Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 4) Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!"
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