7 Best Shakespeare Insults

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest English writer to ever have lived. He was, of course, a true master of words. But just as eloquently as he could express the noblest ideals, he could also deliver the cruelest insults. Here are some of the best jabs from the man who clearly knew the power of the poison pen.

Did we miss your favorite Shakespearean insult? Let us know in the comments!

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"You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so."

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Shakespeare employs this biting insult in "Macbeth" to establish the complete and utter repulsiveness of the three witches. Their "withered and wild" features cause Macbeth and Banquo to question if the sisters are even human beings.

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Shakespeare employs this biting insult in "Macbeth" to establish the complete and utter repulsiveness of the three witches. Their "withered and wild" features cause Macbeth and Banquo to question if the sisters are even human beings.

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Comments

[Brittany Lock]

01:13 AM on 07/21/2011

Love all of those.

[Paul J ONeill]

10:32 AM on 07/20/2011

You have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness.
From Much ado about Nothing

[Paul J ONeill]

10:08 AM on 07/20/2011

How about all the jabs in "Taming of the shrew" ?
From The Taming of the Shrew

How foul and loathsome is thine image

Think'st thou, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

There's small choice in rotten apples

I know she is an irksome brawling scold

Lead apes in hell

If I be waspish, best beware my sting

He was a frantic fool, hiding his better jests in blunt behaviour

A monster, a very monster in apparel

Away, you three inch fool

You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves

Am I your bird?, I mean to shift my bush

Pretty good selection to add as long as the Lady doesn't protest to much (Smile)

[emncaity]

03:07 AM on 07/20/2011

"Filthy bung"? Damn. I gotta remember that one.

[lhanderson86]

01:14 AM on 07/20/2011

My all time favorite was from HBO's Rome series: "You have a rotten soul."

[Natasya Pawanteh]

11:49 PM on 07/19/2011

"If thou art changed to aught, tis to an ass" - Comedy of Errors

"Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life" - Henry IV

[WYHKTai-Tai]

05:34 PM on 07/19/2011

This is my fave, although it is not a brief put-down. It's a very funny scene:

'A Comedy of Errors', Scene II:

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/comedy_errors/comedy_errors.3.2.html

A sample:

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip:
she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out
countries in her.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
In what part of her body stands Ireland?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Where Scotland?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand.
ANTIPHOLUS
OF SYRACUSE
Where France?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war
against her heir.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Where England?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no
whiteness in them; but I guess it stood in her chin,
by the salt rheum that ran between France and it.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Where Spain?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Faith, I saw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath.

[LivelyLexie]

09:54 AM on 07/19/2011

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"
Oh, wait...

[cynical one]

08:14 PM on 07/18/2011

"You are an unpaired breast". Not Shakepearian, but still pretty good.

[Cranmer1549]

01:39 PM on 07/18/2011

Ha ha ha, which one should I use on my first Bagger victim today?

[Mithrall]

01:28 PM on 07/18/2011

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

[ChrisRoberts]

01:00 PM on 07/18/2011

Be gone you wretched sow! I see thee true beneath hair and hide...thou be a demon!

[Jean Garland]

12:37 PM on 07/18/2011

In Richard II Bolingbroke challenges Mowbray with the worst insult in Shakespeare: "Pale trembling coward, . . ."

[ndifference]

11:31 AM on 07/18/2011

My favorite from All's Well - ""Drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine drunk, and in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes about him."

[Erewhon7]

11:28 AM on 07/18/2011

Always been partial to "Get thee gone thou unmuzzled clay-brained bum baily."