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The Elizabethan Language

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.


Some Hints

Add "right", "well", and "most" to your speech:

she doth wash right industrious.

thou art most beauteous fair.

i' faith thou dost sing most marvelous well.

she doth be most marvelous comely!

Address people by rank, title, occupation or physical description. "My Lord", "My Lady", "Good Shire", "Good Wife", "Lad" or "Lass", "Lusty Bar Maid", "Fearless Knight", "Juggler", "Silly Clown", "old Sailor", etc. But a merchant or peasant would call both men "Lord", or "My Lord", or "My Lord, Earl".

"Sir" or "Mistress" be always a safe wager for a personage that is not nobility, but so well dressed as to signify upper class.

To nobility "my Lord" or "my Lady" is safe if you don't know their name or exact title. The Queen is referred to as "Your Highness", or "Your Grace''. In the third person, the Queen may be called "Her Highness. Dukes and Duchesses may also be addressed as "Your Grace".

Office holders such as Judges, Constables, or Bureaucrats, Knights and Squires may be called "Your Honour".


If a curse is what your looking for then here they are, but remember, they can also be used against you!

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

Use one word from each column.
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*