The writer of immortal words and scourge of young examinees, William Shakespeare, was baptized on April 26 — 454 years ago. The formidable language of his plays, strewn with archaic words like 'avaunt' and 'anon', still haunts many readers. But behind the esoteric veneer lies a world of playful candour and an impish sense of humour.
Arguably, the success of any play largely depends on the chemistry, in particular the verbal interactions, between characters. Shakespeare often accentuated the relationships between his characters by having them exchange elaborate insults. They are as much vital dramatic techniques as masterfully creative exercises in hilarity. Like most others, Shakespeare, too, was adept in the use of pejorative animal epithets. One instance where he employs them directly in speech is when Julius Caesar scorns Metellus Cimber by saying "I spurn thee like a cur".
However, he would seek out the oddest of creatures to use in curses. Take, for example, Falstaff's dismissal of Prince Henry by calling him "you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue... you stock-fish" in Henry IV. Again, Lady Percy berates Hotspur by calling him a "mad-headed ape" and disdainfully declares that "A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are toss'd with".
While it might be true that words cannot literally break a person, Shakespeare's Apemantus certainly invites a stone from Timon at the end of their name-calling spree - "Thou art the cap of all fools alive"; "Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon"; "Would thou wouldst burst!" Guess we now know to whom we can attribute the modern-day art of 'trash-talking', after all.
The Bard's eye for the unusual extends to other forms of taunts as well. Rather than calling someone shallow, he would say: "you sheath, you bow-case". The tone, too, heightens the comic effect as in the stately description of Parolles by a lord in All's Well that Ends Well as "a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality".
It is no surprise that Shakespeare was wildly popular as a playwright during his own time. His plays did not solely cater to the elite, but also reached out to the common masses. The insults and innuendos perhaps were learnt up and exchanged in fun as Indians today constantly hum songs from popular Hindi films.
Yet the jab of his insults have somewhat diminished in modern English: in Touchstone's reference to Ovid, 'Goths' was expected to be a homonym of 'goats'. But invectives and puns are just one way in which Shakespeare keeps invigorating the English language even today. He invented well over 1,700 words, which continue to shape our colloquial conversations without our awareness. We know more of Shakespeare than we think.
