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Renaissance Insults
by Stefi

In Renaissance England, they spoke a much more colorful version of English than we do now. William Shakespeare's plays were famous for witty, descriptive insults such as this:

"He is deformed, crooked, old and sere, ill faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere, vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, stigmatical in making, worse in mind."  

(From Comedy of Errors)
     
Shakespeare actor The Renaissance Insult Generator below has three columns of words. You pick one word from each column, add "thou" at the beginning, and you create a Renaissance insult.  

Example: "Stop that, thou warped, toad-spotted jolt-head!" 

In case you are wondering, there are 729 unique insults with the word combinations below.

Before you start clicking on the Renaissance Insult Generator shown below, you should know it is an old-fashioned model -- you select the words you want to use and write them on paper!
Shakespeare Theater

Adjective

Adjective

Noun

warped

toad-spotted

 jolt-head

babbling

guts-griping

mountain-goat

madcap

beef-witted

fat-belly

whining

ill-favored

malt-worm

wretched

hare-brained

minnow

loggerheaded

fat-kidneyed

so-and-so

threadbare

white-bearded

maggot-pie

foul

tickle-brained

foot-licker

artless

shrill-voiced

land-fish
William Shakespeare
 
Queen Elizabeth
Interactive Corey Stories Try the Corey Story Word Game about Renaissance Insults.  But be careful about using these insults in real life.  You never know who might be listening!  (This Corey Story is on a different website, CoreyGreen.com, which opens in a new browser window.)
Corey Green, Children's Book Author -- Official Web Site
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