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Shakespeare's Geography Trivia Quiz

Shakespeare seems to have had a good knowledge of European geography, and his plays have a range of settings throughout that area. Can you match the locations of some of his plays?

A matching quiz by davejacobs. Estimated time: 3 mins.

Author
davejacobs

Time
3 mins

Type
Match Quiz

Quiz #
388,309

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Easy

Avg Score
9 / 10

Plays
671

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

Last 3 plays: Guest 151 (10/10), Guest 82 (10/10), Guest 86 (10/10).

(a) Drag-and-drop from the right to the left, or (b) click on a right side answer box and then on a left side box to move it.

Questions		Choices
1. This play starts in Venice but then the main character is sent to Cyprus where treachery leads to tragic deaths.		Romeo and Juliet
2. This alliteratively named play is the only one set in Spain, namely in Navarre.		Macbeth
3. Not Windsor Castle exactly, but the events definitely take place in that Berkshire town.		Troilus and Cressida
4. The countryside outside Athens, Greece, where magical events take place.		A Midsummer Night's Dream
5. Set in what is now Turkey where the remains of Troy were discovered by Schliemann in 1870.		The Merry Wives of Windsor
6. London, Southampton, Harfleur, Agincourt. A playboy prince becomes a valiant king.		Hamlet
7. Elsinore is a castle on the Danish shore, where lots of important people end up dead.		Richard III
8. This is often coyly called The Scottish Play, so the setting is pretty obvious.		Henry V
9. London is where a King does his plotting, but Bosworth Field near Leicester is where he meets his end.		Love's Labour's Lost
10. The action is set in Verona except when one of the characters is banished to Mantua. Both places are in what is now Italy of course.		Othello

Select each answer

1. This play starts in Venice but then the main character is sent to Cyprus where treachery leads to tragic deaths.

2. This alliteratively named play is the only one set in Spain, namely in Navarre.

3. Not Windsor Castle exactly, but the events definitely take place in that Berkshire town.

4. The countryside outside Athens, Greece, where magical events take place.

5. Set in what is now Turkey where the remains of Troy were discovered by Schliemann in 1870.

6. London, Southampton, Harfleur, Agincourt. A playboy prince becomes a valiant king.

7. Elsinore is a castle on the Danish shore, where lots of important people end up dead.

8. This is often coyly called The Scottish Play, so the setting is pretty obvious.

9. London is where a King does his plotting, but Bosworth Field near Leicester is where he meets his end.

10. The action is set in Verona except when one of the characters is banished to Mantua. Both places are in what is now Italy of course.

Most Recent Scores

Oct 16 2024 : Guest 151: 10/10
Sep 30 2024 : Guest 82: 10/10
Sep 09 2024 : Guest 86: 10/10

Score Distribution

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This play starts in Venice but then the main character is sent to Cyprus where treachery leads to tragic deaths.

Answer: Othello

I once saw Othello played by Laurence Olivier, with Maggie Smith as Desdemona, at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Olivier blacked up for his performance, which would probably be looked on askance today.

2. This alliteratively named play is the only one set in Spain, namely in Navarre.

Answer: Love's Labour's Lost

An early comedy (always a doubtful appellation with Shakespeare I find) has Spanish courtiers promising to devote their time to study and forswearing women, only to find that a bevy of French ladies descend on the court. Enormous fun and confusion result.

3. Not Windsor Castle exactly, but the events definitely take place in that Berkshire town.

Answer: The Merry Wives of Windsor

This is a comedy where the wicked but lovable Sir John Falstaff tries to seduce the wives of two of his friends, but eventually gets his comeuppance.

4. The countryside outside Athens, Greece, where magical events take place.

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Fairies, local yokels, a play within a play - what more could you ask? A character called Bottom was bound to get a laugh in Elizabethan times - and probably now too with the right audience.

5. Set in what is now Turkey where the remains of Troy were discovered by Schliemann in 1870.

Answer: Troilus and Cressida

The story was originally in Homer's "Iliad", set in the Trojan war. Shakespeare pinched it from Chaucer, who had copied it from Boccaccio, who got it from a Frenchman Beno�t de Sainte-Maure, who got it from Homer.

6. London, Southampton, Harfleur, Agincourt. A playboy prince becomes a valiant king.

Answer: Henry V

Another Olivier triumph in his film, with the famous scene of thousands of English arrows descending on the French. We did this play at school, and the one quotation I remember most is "Tennis balls, my liege!" when a gift from France is opened before King Henry.

7. Elsinore is a castle on the Danish shore, where lots of important people end up dead.

Answer: Hamlet

The place still exists and is visited by many tourists. The castle Kronborg is by the Danish town of Helsing�r. This is where Polonius was famously stabbed in the arras and Hamlet talks to the skull of Yorick.

8. This is often coyly called The Scottish Play, so the setting is pretty obvious.

Answer: Macbeth

There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited any part of Scotland, let alone Inverness where Macbeth had his castle, or Dunsinane, or the mobile Birnam Wood.

9. London is where a King does his plotting, but Bosworth Field near Leicester is where he meets his end.

Answer: Richard III

The end of the Wars of the Roses sees Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) beat King Richard III - vilified by Shakespeare in this play - at Bosworth Field, near Leicester. (Pronounced Lester for our American readers.) In September 2012 Richard's skeleton was found under a car park, and was later reburied with honour in Leicester Cathedral.

10. The action is set in Verona except when one of the characters is banished to Mantua. Both places are in what is now Italy of course.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

The teen age lovers should have known better, but fate had them both die in a tomb. In Verona today one can visit a little square where a balcony is said (obviously erroneously, it actually appears to be an old sarcophagus that has been stuck on the wall of a house) to be the one where Juliet talked to Romeo. Beneath it is a bronze statue of Juliet, an intimate part of which has been worn smooth by visitors' caresses!

Source: Author davejacobs

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
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