Originally Posted by
WallyHurst
For those who teach acting, this one is fun and will help your students with their breathing, phrasing, and their fear of Shakespeare.
Enjoy.
Shakespearean Insults
©2011, 2013 Walter K. Hurst
(Adapted from C. Berry of the RSC)
Pair off. Instruct the students to yell the following insults at each other while the person being yelled at walks away from them as fast as they can without running. When the person yelling finishes the insults, they yell “STOP!”, and turn around and start walking quickly away from the other person, who now chases them while yelling insults from a different page.
Shakespeare Insult 1 – The Two Gentlemen of Verona
“Thou subtle, perjur’d, false, disloyal man!”
Shakespeare Insult 2 – As You Like It
“Thou art like a toad; ugly and venomous.”
Shakespeare Insult 3 – The Tempest
“Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.”
Shakespeare Insult 4 – Measure For Measure
“Thou art a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward.”
Shakespeare Insult 5 – All’s Well That Ends Well
“A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”
Shakespeare Insult 6 – Cymbeline
“Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile.”
Shakespeare Insult 7 – Henry IV Part 2
“You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!”
Shakespeare Insult 8 – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Methink’st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.”
Shakespeare Insult 9 – The Winter’s Tale
“My wife’s a hobby horse!”
Shakespeare Insult 10 – Troilus and Cressida
“Thou art as loathsome as a toad.”
Shakespeare Insult 11 – Macbeth
“Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver’d boy.”
Shakespeare Insult 12 – Henry IV Part 1
“Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!”
Shakespeare Insult 13 – Henry IV Part 1
“That trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey Iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?”
Shakespeare Insult 14 – Henry IV Part 1
“You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!”
Shakespeare Insult 15 – Henry IV Part 1
“Peace, ye fat guts!”
Shakespeare Insult 16 – Henry V
“There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.”
Shakespeare Insult 17 – Richard III
“Thou poisonous bunch-back’d toad!”
Shakespeare Insult 18 – Richard III
“Thou art unfit for any place but hell.”
Shakespeare Insult 19 – Hamlet
“Thou are pigeon-liver’d and lack gall.”
Shakespeare Insult 20 – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Your virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese.”
Shakespeare Insult 21 – Henry V
“Thine face is not worth sunburning.”
Shakespeare Insult 22 – As You Like It
“Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.”
Shakespeare Insult 23 – Henry IV Part 1
“You are as a candle, the better burnt out.”
Shakespeare Insult 24 – Hamlet
“If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.”
Shakespeare Insult 25 – Measure For Measure
“Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.”
Shakespeare Insult 26 – All’s Well That Ends Well
“A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”
Shakespeare Insult 27 – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Methink’st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.”
Shakespeare Insult 28 – The Taming Of The Shrew
“Come, come, you froward and unable worms!”
Shakespeare Insult 29 – Macbeth
“Thou cream faced loon”
Shakespeare Insult 30 – Henry IV Part 1
“Thou art as fat as butter.”