A Lesson in Shakespearean Insults

Abstract

Offering a practical and accessible resource for teachers working with Shakespeare's plays, the focus is on the opening dueling scene in Romeo and Juliet. Pupils focus on the language of Elizabethan insults to build knowledge of conflict. The chapter provides a sequential breakdown of a traditional four-step English lesson: a starter activity; the setting of a concrete learning objective; the main activities; and a plenary. Questioning strategies are explored which move pupils from lower to higher order thinking through clearly defined stages. As well as offering resources which teachers can adapt for use in their own classrooms, there is opportunity for the teacher to demonstrate something of their own thespian tendencies by hurling insults around their classroom. As remarked elsewhere to the quiet pupil diligently on task, they may whisper sinisterly: “Go thou and fill another room in hell,” (King Richard II) or shriek in an unhinged manner at the pupil attempting to copy someone else's answers: “What, you egg! Young fry of treachery!” (Macbeth).