Top 10 List of the Most Offensive Shakespearean Insults : PerformerStuff More Good Stuff

Top 10 List of the Most Offensive Shakespearean Insults

Written by Ashleigh Gardner

December 14, 2016

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Shakespeare — his poetic language, his characters, and especially his mean, colorful, and outlandish jibes. When it comes to insults, Shakespeare slays.

#10 — From Richard III

“Thou poisonous bunch-back’d toad!” (Act I, scene iii)

Get monologues from Richard III here.

#9 — From All’s Well That Ends Well

“A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.” (Act III, scene vi)

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Get monologues from All’s Well That Ends Well here.

#8 — From Measure For Measure

“Thou art a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward.” (Act V, scene i)

Get monologues from Measure for Measure here.

#7 — From Coriolanus

“More of your conversation would infect my brain.” (Act II, Scene i)

Get monologues from Coriolanus here.

#6 — From Macbeth

“Thou cream faced loon.” (Act V, Scene iii)

Get monologues from Macbeth here.

#5 — From Henry IV Part 2

“You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!” (Act II, scene i)

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Get monologues from Henry IV Part 2 here.

#4 — From The Taming of the Shrew

“You peasant swain! You whoreson malt-horse drudge!” (Act IV, scene i)

Get monologues from The Taming of the Shrew here.

#3 — From As You Like It

“Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.” (Act II, scene vii)

Get monologues from As You Like It here.

#2 — From Henry IV Part 1

“You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!” (Act 2, Scene iv)

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Get monologues from Henry IV Part 1 here.

#1 — From King Lear

“A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.” (Act II, scene ii)

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Get monologues from King Lear here.

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Ashleigh Gardner received her AA in Theatre/Drama/Dramatic Arts from Valencia College and her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright, an actor, and PerformerStuff.com’s Editor.