In fiction, I've occasionally seen humble language used for other people - it seems to be an insult, and is most common as a command (申せ！). Is my perception correct, and is the insult sense restricted to verbs that don't follow the お（連用形）する・いたす form? (I assume, of course, that this is more common in the past and fiction than present real Japanese.)
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2Any reason you are calling 「申せ」 an insult?– user4032Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 22:36
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1 Answer
謙譲語 was used like this when the speaker was clearly much higher than the listener (... well, at least in fiction). For example, a governor would say to their people,「こちらに参れ」, 「早く申せ」, 「～と存ぜよ」, 「そのように致せ」, or 「ありがたく賜れ」.
These are (sometimes) called 尊大語 (arrogant expression?), and insult is usually not intended. I think these were natural wordings between two people with different social status in those days.
Of course, these are almost never used today (except when a joke is intended).
