Thursday, April 23, 2009

Prithee partyeth as if 'twas 1564

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

14 comments:

  1. One of the English teachers at our school did an activity with Shakespearean insults. It was hilarious!

    I prefer to just bite my thumb at the offending party. :)

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  2. Forsooth, thine blog title madest me chuckle!

    Jen

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  3. 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.

    S'wounds!

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  4. Amanda Brice11:01 AM

    'Tis true that thee mistresses rocketh.

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  5. Thou should knoweth that I add "eth" the the end of many words all year round.

    Not because of Shakespeare so much as I just like to have my own vernacular.

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  6. To this place, shall I point thee - (http://www.poormojo.org/cgi-bin/gennie.pl?Rant+368+bi)
    Yea, forsoothe and verily.

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  7. "Thou mewling rude-growing puttock!"

    SO THERE! Whatever the crap that means...ROFL

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  8. Amanda Brice12:13 PM

    "Thou rancorous rump-fed clotpole!"

    A lot more satisfying than "a$$hole."

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  9. My dear Amanda, fair and wise and bold,
    Thy 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."

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  10. Amanda Brice3:28 PM

    Cara, I think I'm a little bit in love with you. Seriously.

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  11. Dude, Cara--that was killer awesome.

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  12. Such flatt'ring words of praise my mem'ry banks;
    To Rhonda and Amanda: deepest thanks!


    :-)

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. I've made a shakespearean insult generator app for the iphone! check it out here: http://www.killersweetapps.com

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