1. On your PURPLE post- Why? On your PINK post-it: Who likes Shakespeare?
On your GREEN post-it: Why not?
Shakespeare himself wrote with a vocabulary of approximately 17,000 words, four times larger than the vocabulary of the average educated person of the time. He is famously responsible for contributing over 3000 words to the English language because he was the first author to write them down. Of this number more than one tenth or 1700 were used for the first time.
GREEN. 'neither rhyme nor reason'
'wild-goose chase'
'dead as a doornail'
'brave new world'

2. Shakespearean Insults
10/05/12
LO: To feel more comfortable with Shakespeare's language AND work with Elizabethan sentence structure
By the end of the lesson you will have:
Level 5
explore Shakespearean language by constructing insults
Level 6
given detailed explanations of why unfamiliar words are used and the effects it has on the reader.
Level 7
precisely analysed the use of unusual words and explained the overall effects on the reader.
commented on unusual words and shown understanding of their effect on the reader
Did you know? Shakespeare’s audience referred to going to hear a play rather than see it, emphasising that the Elizabethan theatre was an aural rather than visual experience.

3. Introducing Shakespeare
Greetings from me, The Bard, England’s greatest poet and storyteller. You thought I was just the greatest writer? I am also the rudest man in England!
Elizabethan English is a wonderfully colorful language full of numerous evocative words and phrases. Elizabethans took a delight with language and it is fitting, then, that this would filter into the art of mudslinging. Thier mastery of language was often showcased in the clever weaving together of terms to form stinging phrases of wit. Remember this was a time when the average person did not read, and other forms of entertainment were not readily available, but good conversation acted as a substitute.

4. Language in Action: Horrible Histories
What are the
characters doing?
What’s happening in the scene?
How do the character’s body movements and facial expressions create meaning alongside the words?
S and L: emphasise words, body movements and facial expressions

5. WATCH THIS! How many of the 62 Insults can you write down?

6. Use the Shakespeare Insult Kit
TASK
Use the Shakespeare Insult Kit
Combine one word or phrase from each columns and add “Thou” to the beginning.
“Thou ruttish, doghearted foot licker”
Please use carefully, thou pribbling, clapper clawed harpy! Make certain thou knowest the meaning of thy strong words, and thou shalt have the perfect insult to fling at the wretched fools of the opposing family. Let thyself go. Mix and match to find that perfect combination!

7. Insult Alley!
Divide the class into two lines (like an alley) explain that one side will throw insults while the other side will listen. Then reverse.

8. By my trowth, thou dost make the millstone seem as a feather what widst thy lard-bloated footfall
TASK 2
TRANSLATE THIS!

9. Thy vile canker-blossom’d countenance curdles milk and sours beer.
TRANSLATE THIS!
Thy vile canker-blossom’d countenance curdles milk and sours beer.
Thy vile canker-blossom'd countenance curdles milk and sours beer.

10. In sooth, thy dank cavernous tooth-hole consumes all truth and reason!

11. Watch the opening scene from Romeo and Juliet
ABRAHAM : Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? SAMPSON: I do bite my thumb, sir. ABRAHAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Watch the opening scene from Romeo and Juliet SUMMARY: Sampson and Gregory, two servants of the house of Capulet, stroll through the streets of Verona. With bawdy banter, Sampson vents his hatred of the house of Montague. The two exchange punning remarks about physically conquering Montague men and sexually conquering Montague women. Gregory sees two Montague servants approaching, and discusses with Sampson the best way to provoke them into a fight without breaking the law. Sampson bites his thumb at the Montagues—a highly insulting gesture. A verbal confrontation quickly escalates into a fight. Benvolio, a kinsman to Montague, enters and draws his sword in an attempt to stop the confrontation. Tybalt, a kinsman to Capulet, sees Benvolio’s drawn sword and draws his own. Benvolio explains that he is merely trying to keep the peace, but Tybalt professes a hatred for peace as strong as his hatred for Montagues, and attacks. The brawl spreads. A group of citizens bearing clubs attempts to restore the peace by beating down the combatants. Montague and Capulet enter, and only their wives prevent them from attacking one another. Prince Escalus arrives and commands the fighting stop on penalty of torture. The Capulets and Montagues throw down their weapons. The Prince declares the violence between the two families has gone on for too long, and proclaims a death sentence upon anyone who disturbs the civil peace again. He says that he will speak to Capulet and Montague more directly on this matter; Capulet exits with him, the brawlers disperse, and Benvolio is left alone with his uncle and aunt, Montague and Lady Montague.
WHAT DO THEY THINK?

12. Read the description and create an image of Doctor Pinch
PLENARY
Read the description and create an image of Doctor Pinch
They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller, A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, A living-dead man. (A Comedy of Errors, )

13. Homework
Spend 30 minutes translating the Shakespearean insults from your sheet.