"A very fresh fish here!"

[Mike Mcgraw <mcgraw -at- BROOKTREE -dot- COM>]

"Thorny hedgehog; lack-love; kill-courtesy; hempen homespun; cowardly,
giantlike oxbeef; shallowest thickskin of that barren sort; thou cat;
thou burr; vile thing; you juggler; you canker blossom; you thief of
love; you counterfeit; you puppet; thou painted maypole; vixen; you
dwarf; you minimus, of hind'ring knotgrass made; you bead; you acorn;
king of shadows; you runaway; idle gaud; patched fool; dear Lady
Disdain; hard heart; rare parrot-teacher; hypocrite; professed tyrant;
flouting Jack; obstinate heretic; young start-up; old cuckold with horns
on his head."



There! And not a "four-letter word" among them.  Now if we could all
squeeze our wits like William Shakespeare.

The above "mass of short, sharp, quick and ready-to-use vituperation" is
taken from "Shakespeare's Insults: Educating Your Wit" by Wayne F. Hill
and Cynthis J. Ottchen; MainSail Press, Cambridge; copyright 1991 (4th
printing, Sept.'92), paperback, price unknown (it was a birthday present.)

The book includes sections on ~Name Calling~ (general abuse; knavery and
villany; and expletives), ~The Plays~ (38 of them), and ~Ready Insults
for Particular Occasions~ (eye catchers; foul emanations; caterwauling;
unwholesome ingestions; basic badness; botchers and lightweights; boors
and bores; looseness and tightness; and windbaggery).

                                        Mike McGraw  :*)
                                        San Diego STC and Brooktree (and me)