In sooth, 'tis the day to pattern thy parlance to evoke the Bard!
To celebrate the 445th birthday of the greatest playwright of the English language, Mayor Richard Dailey of Chicago has declared today "Talk Like Shakespeare Day." Although Shakespeare's actual birth date is unknown, many scholars believe 'twas April 23, 1564.
In honor of this grand occasion, I encourage all of you to throw as many instances of "prithee," "fie!", and "thou" into your conversation as possible. It's easy to add "eth" to the end of all your verbs, and simply drop the "it" and use the letter "T" instead.
The "www.talklikeshakespeare.org" website has a fun quiz on words coined by Shakespeare, as well as some great tips to help you truly talk like the Bard.
But probably the funnest (hey, if he could make up words, then I can certainly use non-words as well) part of today is the ability to unleash all those gloriously vivid Shakespearean insults.
Why call your rival mean girl/ex-boyfriend/boss (insert proper baddie here) an idiot when a "vain fen-sucked fustilarian" is so much more fun.
Besides, if you walk around saying "Thou dissembling elf-skinned flirt-gill!" you can feel all superior, knowing that you've insulted your victim and he/she didn't even understand it.
Find your favorite insults with the Shakespearean Insults Generator:
http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/a1-shakespearean-insults-generator.htm
One of the English teachers at our school did an activity with Shakespearean insults. It was hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI prefer to just bite my thumb at the offending party. :)
Forsooth, thine blog title madest me chuckle!
ReplyDeleteJen
Verily, mistress, thou has madest me chuckle upon discovery of thy ribaldry. For thou hast cast upon my forlock the musings of thy chuckling heart and smote it with revelrie.
ReplyDeleteS'wounds!
'Tis true that thee mistresses rocketh.
ReplyDeleteThou should knoweth that I add "eth" the the end of many words all year round.
ReplyDeleteNot because of Shakespeare so much as I just like to have my own vernacular.
To this place, shall I point thee - (http://www.poormojo.org/cgi-bin/gennie.pl?Rant+368+bi)
ReplyDeleteYea, forsoothe and verily.
"Thou mewling rude-growing puttock!"
ReplyDeleteSO THERE! Whatever the crap that means...ROFL
"Thou rancorous rump-fed clotpole!"
ReplyDeleteA lot more satisfying than "a$$hole."
My dear Amanda, fair and wise and bold,
ReplyDeleteThy inspiration for this day's fine post
Doth take my breath away with genius true;
For ne'er was English better than when Will
Did write his plays and verses with a quill
That dripped the ink of "sooth" and "thou" and "'twill."
Cara, I think I'm a little bit in love with you. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteDude, Cara--that was killer awesome.
ReplyDeleteSuch flatt'ring words of praise my mem'ry banks;
ReplyDeleteTo Rhonda and Amanda: deepest thanks!
:-)
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ReplyDeleteI've made a shakespearean insult generator app for the iphone! check it out here: http://www.killersweetapps.com
ReplyDelete