Tennis balls and other Shakespearean insults

After finishing this history play, I feel that what made reading Henry V so engaging was the different types of language that Shakespeare used. He had the legal and religious jargon of an archbishop, the blood-boiling rhetoric by Henry in the field of battle, and the casual dialects of the lower classes. Across all these different levels of communication, however, the one thing that he always seemed able to convey (whether it be tennis balls or accusations of being a "prick-eared cur of Iceland"), was insults. My favorites are by Pistol: "egregious dog," "viper vile," and "braggart vile." There's also some good exchanges of insults between the French and English, like in Act 1 with the tennis balls, and at the end of Act 2 with this dialogue:

DAUPHIN

For the Dauphin,

I stand here for him. What to him from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,

And anything that may not misbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king: an if your father’s Highness

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,

Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty,

He’ll call you to so hot an answer of it

That caves and womby vaultages of France

Shall chide your trespass and return your mock

In second accent of his ordinance.

DAUPHIN

Say, if my father render fair return,

It is against my will, for I desire

Nothing but odds with England. To that end,

As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER

He’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,

Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe.

And be assured you’ll find a difference,

As we his subjects have in wonder found,

Between the promise of his greener days

And these he masters now. Now he weighs time

Even to the utmost grain. That you shall read

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

I don't know if this struck anyone else, but the first thing that came to mind when reading the taunting between the French and English was this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Enjoy! :)

Also, this week we will be starting comedies. I'm reading The Taming of the Shrew, and this is my reading schedule:


01/31 - Background and Act 1
02/02 - Acts 2 and 3
02/04 - Acts 4 and 5