
No Renaissance Faire is complete without experiencing it through wearing the clothing and speaking the language. So before you go to your next Renaissance Faire, sit down and practice using the language. Try it out on your friends, your kids, heck, even try it out on your kid's friends (especially the ones you don't want coming back!). That way by the time you get to the Ren Faire this year, you will sound like one of the locals.
Cross Keyes Inn = a mythical place "right down that path over there,"
useful when you really have to leave, send someone away, end a
conversation, or get out of sticky situations ("Good sir, I will meet
you later at the Cross Keyes Inn.")
E'en = evening
Fie! (pronounced "Fy!") = equivalent to "Darn it!"
God's Blood, God's Teeth, etc. = fairly mild (by Elizabethan standards) swear words
Good Morrow (or "Good den") = Hello
Gramercy = thank you
In Very Sooth = really. Sometimes used as code for "I really mean this, I'm not just acting" (i.e. "In very sooth, I must away to the privies.")
I' Faith = really. Sometimes used as code for, "This *isn't* a real statement I'm about to make, I'm only acting." ("I'faith, I have ne'er been to school.")
Mayhap = maybe
Privy = bathroom
Recover = put your hat back on (after doffing it to the nobility)
anon= until later
morrow = day
e'en = even/evening
fare-thee-well = goodbye
aye/yea = yes
nay = no
ne'r = never
oft = often
wherefore = why
mayhap/perchance/belike = maybe
enow = enough
aroint = away
verily = very/truly
prithee/pray = please
"Hello", best said as "Good Day!", "Good morrow!", "Well met"
"Good Bye" spoken as "Fare thee well!", "God save thee", "I shall see thee anon".
"You" are certainly "Thou"
"You would" or "You should" rolls best off the pecking tongue as "Thou would'st"
or "Thou should'st".
"Listen"takes power as "Hark" or "Hark now"
"Ignore that" best be whispered as "Shun that"
"Come here" moves more feet as "Come hither"
"A Salesperson" barks louder as a "Hawker"
"Beer" slides down thy gullet easier as "Ale"
"A Serving Woman" is a "Wench" unless you've met a "Maiden" who demonstrates a desire to serve.


To create your own curses, memorize some choice terms from the list below, two adjectives and a noun minimum per curse please.
Out of my path, thou Spongy Rat-Faced Foot Licker!
"He lies through his teeth!" translation "He be a prattler indeed!"
"He killed himself" - "He's stuffed a red stocking"
"It takes more than Sex to Make a marriage " - There's more belongs to a marriage than four bare legs in a bed"
"You perfect son of a donkey's tail" - " Thou great and mighty clumperton"
From: mal6315@cs.rit.edu (Matthew A Lecher) Subject: Here they are, the Shakespearian insults!!!!!! Date: Sun, 17 Jul 1994 16:03:35 GMT
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
| artless | base-court | apple-john |
| bawdy | bat-fowling | baggage |
| beslubbering | beef-witted | barnacle |
| bootless | beetle-headed | bladder |
| churlish | boil-brained | boar-pig |
| cockered | clapper-clawed | bugbear |
| clouted | clay-brained | bum-bailey |
| craven | common-kissing | canker-blossom |
| currish | crook-pated | clack-dish |
| dankish | dismal-dreaming | clotpole |
| dissembling | dizzy-eyed | coxcomb |
| droning | doghearted | codpiece |
| errant | dread-bolted | death-token |
| fawning | earth-vexing | dewberry |
| fobbing | elf-skinned | flap-dragon |
| froward | fat-kidneyed | flax-wench |
| frothy | fen-sucked | flirt-gill |
| gleeking | flap-mouthed | foot-licker |
| goatish | fly-bitten | fustilarian |
| gorbellied | folly-fallen | giglet |
| impertinent | fool-born | gudgeon |
| infectious | full-gorged | haggard |
| jarring | guts-griping | harpy |
| loggerheaded | half-faced | hedge-pig |
| lumpish | hasty-witted | horn-beast |
| mammering | hedge-born | hugger-mugger |
| mangled | hell-hated | jolthead |
| mewling | idle-headed | lewdster |
| paunchy | ill-breeding | lout |
| pribbling | ill-nurtured | maggot-pie |
| puking | knotty-pated | malt-worm |
| puny | milk-livered | mammet |
| quailing | motley-minded | measle |
| rank | onion-eyed | minnow |
| reeky | plume-plucked | miscreant |
| roguish | pottle-deep | moldwarp |
| ruttish | pox-marked | mumble-news |
| saucy | reeling-ripe | nut-hook |
| spleeny | rough-hewn | pigeon-egg |
| spongy | rude-growing | pignut |
| surly | rump-fed | puttock |
| tottering | shard-borne | pumpion |
| unmuzzled | sheep-biting | ratsbane |
| vain | spur-galled | scut |
| venomed | swag-bellied | skainsmate |
| villainous | tardy-gaited | strumpet |
| warped | tickle-brained | varlet |
| wayward | toad-spotted | vassal |
| weedy | urchin-snouted | whey-face |
| yeasty | weather-bitten | wagtail |
Back to the College
Well thats all I have for now, but you will find that the more you use the language, the easier it gets. So have fun and I'll see you at the Cross Keye Inn this summer!! * Grins*