Written in Prison Quiz | Literature: Something in Common

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1. Born in Rome when the western empire was falling, this man prospered under Theodoric, the Visigothic ruler of the city, and became consul in AD 510. However, he was later imprisoned on suspicion of plotting against Theodoric, and was executed in 525. In prison he wrote a treatise called "The Consolation of Philosophy," which became one of the most frequently translated works in the world. Who was he?

Answer: Boethius

For a thousand years after Boethius' death, "De Consolatione Philosophiae" was one of the most widely read texts in the western world. It was first translated into English by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century. Later translators include Geoffrey Chaucer. Its reputation lives on: in 2001 the title was adapted by Alain de Botton.

2. The "Morte d'Arthur," a fifteenth-century collection of Arthurian legends, was probably compiled in prison. What was the name of the author?

Answer: Thomas Malory

Malory, the author, is usually identified as Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire. He became a knight by 1442 and a Member of Parliament in 1445. He spent most of the 1450s in prison on charges including murder, robbery and rape, though he does not seem to have been brought to trial and was released on bail more than once.

His synthesis of the Arthurian legends is the source of most of the later Arthurian literature in the English-speaking world.

3. This man was a faithful servant of King Henry VIII of England, and became Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, in the 1530s he could not bring himself to recognize the King as head of the English church, and he was consequently imprisoned and beheaded for treason. While in prison he wrote "A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation". Who was he?

Answer: Thomas More

More was beheaded in 1535 after a spell of more than a year in the Tower. His "Dialogue" recommends a kind of Christian stoicism in the face of adversity and death, and contains a fairly lengthy consideration of the rights and wrongs of suicide.

4. Which famous English explorer, soldier, courtier and poet wrote "A History of the World" while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged treason against James VI and I?

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

Raleigh spent some twelve and a half years in prison for allegedly conspiring against the King. He was eventually beheaded, after being released "under peril of law" to lead an abortive expedition to South America. His History deals with Egyptian, Greek and biblical history down to 168 BC/BCE.

It is remembered chiefly for its general reflections, including the famous address to Death: "O eloquent, just and mighty Death! Whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou alone hast cast out of the world and despised! Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it over with these two narrow words: [i]Hic jacet[/i] (Here lies)."

5. Which English cavalier poet wrote the lyric "To Althea, from Prison," with the couplet "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage"?

Answer: Richard Lovelace

Lovelace, the son and heir of a wealthy Kentish landowner, served a short spell in the Gatehouse in Westminster in 1642 after presenting to Parliament the "Kentish petition," which called for the restoration of the King's rights and the Anglican liturgy. "To Althea" is traditionally supposed to have been written then, but this cannot be proved.

6. "Pilgrim's Progress," one of the most famous allegories in the English language, was written (in part, at least) while its author was in prison. Who was the author?

Answer: John Bunyan

Bunyan, a man of rudimentary education, was introduced to religious literature by his first wife. He began preaching in his mid-twenties. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he was arrested for unlicensed preaching and spent twelve years in prison. Towards the end of this term, he began work on "Pilgrim's Progress", which was eventually published in 1678.

7. John Cleland, imprisoned for debt in 1748 - 49, wrote a novel called "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure." It is said to have made �10,000 (more than a million pounds in 2006 terms) for his publisher, but brought him only twenty guineas. During the next two centuries, many people were imprisoned for publishing or selling the novel. The work is generally known by the name of its heroine: what is her name?

Answer: Fanny Hill

Criminal prosecutions of literary works had tended to concentrate on alleged blasphemy and sedition, but by George II's time the authorities were giving more attention to obscenity. Cleland was summoned before the Privy Council soon after the book was published, but was not punished.

However, in 1757 a bookseller named Drybutter was prosecuted and pilloried for selling a version of the work, and for the next 200 years or so publishers and sellers of the book were prosecuted and convicted. The last notable conviction was that of the paperback publishers Mayflower Books in 1964. Public opinion was rapidly changing, however: six years later Mayflower published the book again, and were not prosecuted.

8. An English radical, fleeing from arrest for seditious libel in England, was warmly welcomed in revolutionary France in 1792. Before long, however, his popularity waned, and he spent nearly a year in prison, where he wrote Part 2 of his work "The Age of Reason." Who was he?

Answer: Thomas Paine

Having attacked the British political system in "The Rights of Man," Paine turned his attention to religion in "The Age of Reason." Paine was not an atheist, but he could not stomach orthodox Christianity, finding the Old Testament to consist of "obscene stories and voluptuous debaucheries" and the New to be inconsistent and self-contradictory. English publishers and booksellers who sold the work were prosecuted for blasphemous libel (a common-law offence which still exists in England in 2006).

9. While in prison, Oscar Wilde wrote a work addressed to his former friend Lord Alfred Douglas. Parts of it were published after his death. It is generally described as an "apologia" for Wilde's way of life. Its title is taken from the opening of one of the Psalms in Latin. What is this title?

Answer: De profundis

Psalm 130 (129 in the traditional Vulgate numbering) begins "De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam" ("Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice."). It is in this work that Wilde describes his association with the more dubious elements in the London of the 1890s as "feasting with panthers."

10. One of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century fought in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I and was held in Italy as a prisoner of war. In captivity, he wrote part of his principal work, the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus." Who was he?

Answer: Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, dar�ber mu� man schweigen" ("What one cannot speak about, one must keep silent about") is one of Wittgenstein's best known sentences. For me, Wittgenstein's works fall into that category!

Source: Author TabbyTom

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Written in Prison Trivia Quiz

Throughout the ages, writers have fallen foul of the law, sometimes because of their writings and sometimes for other reasons; so it's not really surprising that many works of literature were written in prison. This quiz deals with a few of them.

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