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The bardic master of rapier wit.
A well-timed and carefully worded insult can silence those that cry out for justice or set a roomful of friends to uproarious laughter. William Shakespeare was a master of the hurled insult, and his flowery and archaic language can really add a punch when your target's jaw drops in utter confusion.
So should you find yourself in need of a crafty discourtesy, ready one of these excellent Shakespearean scorns.
[You show yourself] highly fed and lowly taught.
All's Well That Ends Well (2.2 3)
You would answer very well to a whipping.
All's Well That Ends Well (2.2 50-51)
You are not worth another word, else I'd call you a knave.
All's Well That Ends Well (2.3 258-259)
I think he be transform'd into a beat, for I can nowhere find him like a man.
As You Like It (2.7 1-2)
You'll be rotten ere you be half ripe.
As You Like It (3.2 117)
Tis such fools as you that make the world full of ill-favor'd children.
As You Like It (3.5 52-53)
They lie deadly that tell you have good face.
Coriolanus (2.1 60-61)
Get thee to a nunnery.
Hamlet (3.1 121)
I know [you] to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back.
Henry IV, Part I (1.2 177-178)
You are as a candle, the better part burnt out.
Henry IV, Part II (1.2 155-156)
When I tell him he hates flatterers, he says he does, being then most flattered.
Julius Caesar (2.1 207-208)
You base football player!
King Lear (1.4 91)
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face.
King Lear (4.2 30-31)
[Your] sole name blisters our tongues.
MacBeth (4.3 12)
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty to make thy riches pleasant.
Measure for Measure (3.1 37-38)
Hast thou word or wit or impudence that yet can do thee office?
Measure for Measure (5.1 362-363)
[You] are only reputed wise for saying nothing.
The Merchant of Venice (1.1 96-97)
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
The Merchant of Venice (1.2 53)
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