Exercise: Shakespearean Insults

If you have a Shakespeare unit or play study planned for your class, start with this exercise; it’s a great doorway to engaging with the Bard. The key to Shakespeare is to get students up and performing. Shakespeare was never meant to be read or studied. His actors didn’t read and study their lines, they acted them. They breathed life into the words. That is what you need to get your students to do.

Click below to download the Shakespeare Insults Handout. It has this exercise in PDF form as well as an Insults Table your students can use to create their own.

Instruction

• Start off with some vocal warm-up exercises. Tongue twisters are a good choice!

• Divide your students into pairs. Each pair will work together to create a 30-second scene. For example:
  A: Hey!
  B: Hello there.
  A: Let me by, I have to cross this bridge.
  B: You can’t.
  A: Why not?
  B: Because.
  A: Cause why?
  B: Cause there’s a bear on the other side.
  A: Why didn’t you say so?

• Have pairs present their scene.

• Share with students that people often think of Shakespeare as dull or dreary because of the language barrier. But Shakespeare was dramatic and his characters are larger than life. Nowhere is that more evident than in the insults Shakespeare gave his characters.

• Give students this insult and have them all say it at the same time. Repeat the insult so that everyone has the words down:

• “Thou dankish, guts-gripping, maggot pie!”

• Highlight to students that “thou” means you. Simple as that.

• Give students the Shakespeare Insult Table (you can download it below), which has a simple formula for creating an insult: Thou A+B+C!

• Gather in a circle. Have students pick phrases from each column and combine them to create a Shakespearean insult that starts with “Thou.” Have everyone “insult” each other.

• Get students back in their pairs and review their scene. To make it Shakespearean, they are going to add an insult, following the formula Thou A+B+C! to at least five lines. So, the sample scene from above might look like:
  A: Hey thou gorbellied, motley-minded hugger-mugger!
  B: Hello there thou yeasty, clapper-clawed strumpet!
  A: Let me by, thou frothy, dizzy-eyed maggot pie! I have to cross this bridge.
  B: You can’t.
  A: Why not?
  B: Because, thou surly, guts-gripping harpy!
  A: Cause why, thou dankish, sheep-biting pignut?
  B: Cause there’s a bear on the other side, thou spleeny, fly-bitten varlet!
  A: Why didn’t you say so, thou mewling, swagbellied footlicker?

• Everyone will present the new version of their scene.

It’s silly, it’s fun and yes, it’s Shakespeare.

Want More?
Head on over to the Free Resources section of the Theatrefolk site for more Shakespeare help, including:

• Directing Shakespeare for the First Time
• Romeo and Juliet Word Search
• Iambic Pentameter