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- Category: English Language Arts
- Published: Thursday, 01 January 2015 21:56
- Written by Brian Jaeger
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This was given to me by another teacher. The idea is to get the kids excited about Elizabethan language.
Your assignment is to create a dialogue in a Google Document, saved to your class folder, and shared with those also working on the document. Title the document B.2
Now, create a dialogue between the people in your group. Your goal is to insult the dewberries out of each other using Elizabethan English.
- You MUST use multiple adjectives to describe one noun in your sentences.
- You MUST use some of the other techniques, as well.
- Each person should have five lines in your scene. (That means five sentences). If you're working alone, you write ten lines.
- NO REPEATING INSULTS
- Put all of your names on the top of the assignment
In order to use this insult generator choose two adjectives and one noun and combine them using "Thou art a(n)..."
Student 1 - Thou art a churlish, dismal-dreaming fustilarian.
(Make a longer, more interesting insult by choosing more adjectives from columns one and two and combine them, then add some other techniques.)
Student 2 - God's teeth, thou art an artless, crook-pated, fawning, mewling, elf-skinned puttock. Fie upon thee! Tis thou who maketh me ill.
Adjectives Artless | Base-court | Bawdy | Bat-fowling | Beslubbering | Beef-witted | Bootless | Beetle-headed | Churlish | Boil-brained | Cockered | Clapper-clawed | Clouted | Clay-brained | Craven | Common-kissing | Currish | Crook-pated | Dankish | Dismal-dreaming | Dissembling | Dizzy-eyed | Droning | Dog-hearted | Errant | Dread-bolted | Fawning | Earth-vexing | Fobbing | Elf-skinned | Froward | Fat-kidneyed | Frothy | Fen-sucked | Gleeking | Flap-mouthed | Goatish | Fly-bitten | Gorbellied | Folly-fallen | Impertinent | Fool-born | Infectious | Full-gorged | Jarring | Guts-griping | Loggerheaded | Half-faced | Lumpish | Hasty-witted | Mammering | Hedge-born | Mangled | Hell-hated | Mewling | Idle-headed | Paunchy | Ill-breeding | Pribbling | Ill-nurtured | Puking | Knotty-pated | Puny | Milk-livered | Quailing | Motley-minded | Rank | Onion-eyed | Reeky | Plume-plucked | Roguish | Pottle-deep | Ruttish | Pox-marked | Saucy | Reeling-ripe | Spleeny | Rough-hewn | Spongy | Rude-growing | Surly | Rump-fed | Tottering | Shard-borne | Unmuzzled | Sheep-biting | Vain | Spur-galled | Venomed | Swag-bellied | Villainous | Tardy-gaited | Warped | Tickle-brained | Wayward | Toad-spotted | Weedy | Unchin-snouted | Yeasty | Weather-bitten | | Nouns Apple-john | Baggage | Barnacle | Bladder | Boar-pig | Bugbear | Bum-bailey | Canker-blossom | Clack-dish | Clot-pole | Coxcomb | Codpiece | Death-token | Dewberry | Flap-dragon | Flax-wench | Flirt-gill | Foot-licker | Fustilarian | Giglet | Gudgeon | Haggard | Harpy | Hedge-pig | Horn-beast | Huggermugger | Jolt-head | Lewdster | Lout | Maggot-pie | Malt-worm | Mammet | Measle | Minnow | Miscreant | Mold-warp | Mumble-news | Nut-hook | Pigeon-egg | Pignut | Puttock | Pumpion | Rats-bane | Scut | Skains-mate | Strumpet | Varlot | Vassal | Whey-face | Wagtail | | Other Techniques Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin. Don’t waste time saying “it,” just use the letter “t” (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t). When in doubt, add the letters “eth” to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth). To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore You are = Thou art you = thee (Get thee to a nunnery!) your = thine Often, to lend credence to your words, or indicate the voracity of your words one might swear by any number of things: - One might swear by God's name, but more often than not they would swear by
- "God's Teeth" - "God's teeth, 'tis cold outside."
- God's Wounds as "Zounds" (pronounced: zoonds) - "Zounds, I ne'er thought she wouldst do that!"
- "God's Blood"
- Some men might swear by mythological and classical beings (possibly to sound more educated?)
- "by the Might of Mars!"
- "the Beauty of Venus!"
- Men swore by numerous other things:
- "...by my beard."
- By the saints
- By tools of their trade:
- "By my hammer and tongs" in the case of a blacksmith
- "By my sword..." as a knight
- A woman wouldn't be so crass as to swear by false deities, etc… She would choose more polite phrasings:
- "On my honor/chastity/virtue..."
- A woman might also swear by the saints.
- Swear by the tools of her trade: spinning wheel, thread and needles, etc.
Some words of exclamation that might be considered Elizabethan expletives: "Fie!" is used a general exclamation of disgust. An example of Shakespeare's use of the word: Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, Some common phrases using "Fie!" "Oh, Fie!" "Fie and fie again!" "Fie upon it!" or "Fie upon that!" or "Fie upon you!" "Tush!" is a more mild exclamation than "fie". The word is used alone in a sentence (for instance you would not say "Tush upon you!" It sounds silly). It's hard to equate this to a term in the modern lexicon as it is similar to some, yet synonymous with none. An example of the word's use in a sentence: Oh tush, sir… you gave me a fright you did…"Go to!" is an exclamation akin to our modern "Get outta here!" and/or "Really?" It is also used to tell a person to take their leave. An example of the use of "Go to!" in a sentence: Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides, you grow dishonest. | |