Shakespeare Trivia

1. Which Shakespearean sonnet begins, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds?"

From Quiz Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds

Answer: Sonnet 116

Sonnet 18 begins "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" while Sonnet 2 kicks off with "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow." The opening line of Sonnet 23 is "As an unprefect actor on the stage..."

From Quiz Who? What? When? Where? Why? (for Shakespeare)

Answer: Padua, Italy

This play revolves around Katherina, the eldest daughter of a Padua lord, and Katherina's younger sister, Bianca. While there are men who want to marry Bianca, she is forbidden from marrying until Katherina, the "shrew", is married.

From Quiz Shakespeare's Sonnets

Answer: Sugared

"The witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous & honey-tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared sonnets among his private friends, &c." Meres' work also cites several of Shakespeare's plays, which has helped in dating them. It is unknown how Meres, an obscure cleric living in Rutland, would have learned about the sonnets. No connection has ever been found linking him to Shakespeare.

From Quiz The Merry Wives of Windsor

Answer: Overweight, obnoxious and loud

Sir John Falstaff appeared in both parts One and Two of "Henry IV" and in "Henry V". It has been suggested that "The Merry Wives of Windsor" was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I, but there is no evidence to prove this to be the case. Although Falstaff was a jolly man, he was well past his prime and living on his memories, deluded no doubt, by the copious amounts of alcohol that he consumed on a daily basis.

From Quiz Forecasting the Weather

Answer: Sebastian

Viola is rescued from the wreck, but believes Sebastian has been drowned. She disguises herself as a young man, and takes a position as a servant to Duke Orsino, who uses 'him' as an intermediary to woo the reluctant Olivia. Viola falls in love with Orsino, while Olivia falls for Viola (in her masculine disguise). Fortunately, Sebastian has also survived and, after some confusion due to the likeness between the twins, Sebastian is able to marry Olivia while Viola captures the heart of Orsino. Antonio is the sea captain who rescues Sebastian while Malvolio is the steward for Olivia.

From Quiz "Coriolanus" by William Shakespeare

Answer: The grain stores have been closed to the public

Rome was in disarray following the removal of the most recent ruler. Food was in short supply and the grain stores were closed to the public. The public rioted. They did not want the grain for free, but they did want to set the price.

From Quiz Much Ado About NOThing

Answer: Verges

"Titus Andronicus" is believed to be Shakespeare's first tragedy. Saturninus was the son of the late emperor of Rome. Lucius was a son of Titus Andronicus. Valentine was a kinsman of Titus.

From Quiz Prayer and Invocation in Shakespeare

Answer: Claudius

Claudius, the king of Denmark and murderer of the former king Hamlet, is terrified by the re-enactment of his crime in the play within the play, and immediately runs off to pray. Hamlet, finally convinced of Claudius' guilt, tries to kill the man but believes that killing a man in prayer would send him to heaven - hardly fair for his father's murderer. After Hamlet leaves, Claudius reveals that since he is so guilty, he wasn't quite able to pray in the first place.

From Quiz The Life and Death of King John

Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor makes this statement as she offers the bastard Philip Faulconbridge a knighthood and change of name, recognizing the family resemblance to one of her sons (1.1.150). The historical Eleanor was first married to Louis VII of France, but he divorced her after disastrous events in war and on a crusade to the Holy Land drove him away from his powerful, vital wife into the arms of the church, especially since they had produced two daughters but no male heir. Eight weeks after her divorce thirty-year-old Eleanor married nineteen-year-old Henry of Anjou, who would become Henry II of England. With Henry, Eleanor gave birth to eight children, including Richard I and John, who became kings of England. Another son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, was the father of Arthur, who appears as a character in Shakespeare's "The Life and Death of King John"; one of her daughters, Queen Eleanor of Castile, was the mother of Blanche, another character in the play.

From Quiz "Pericles" by Shakespeare

Answer: Tyre

Pericles was based on several other earlier works rather than historical fact. Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city and is the fourth largest city in modern day Lebanon. It is a major port and attracts many tourists.

From Quiz "The Two Noble Kinsmen" by Shakespeare

Answer: The Knight's Tale

During the Prologue, the audience is informed that the play is based upon the earlier work. A previous adaptation by Richard Edwardes already existed prior to 1614, the probable date of "The Two Noble Kinsmen".

From Quiz Shakespeare for Dummies..."Timon of Athens"

Answer: Greece

Timon is a wealthy Greek man who enjoys pleasing his friends. He is kind and generous to a fault, and somewhat naive. This play follows his journey down the path of life, and his acquisition of knowledge through his interactions with fellow mankind. It examines both the best and the worst in man. It is an introspective look at true friendship and its rarity and value. It is believed that Shakespeare many have gotten his inspiration for this work from "The Misanthrope" by Lucian (125-200). Considered one of Shakespearean more obscure works, it is well worth reading.

From Quiz Legend of Shakespeare - Sonnet I

Answer: Agriculture

When Shakespeare wrote "fairest creatures", he meant anything that is living and is "most beautiful". When he said "increase", he was referring to procreation. The entire line is actually about wanting to increase the harvest. The metaphor here is explaining that, when breeding, the best are used (same with plants as it is with the animals). If the best are used, the best offspring are born. The "lesser" plants and animals will create lesser offspring, but Shakespeare is saying that we desire the best. To "modernize" this line, it could read simply: "From the best creatures we want better."

From Quiz All's Well That Ends Well

Answer: "Hamlet", "Measure for Measure" and "Troilus and Cressida"

"Problem play" was a term invented by the distinguished nineteenth-century scholar F. S. Boas, and is notoriously hard to define accurately - not that this has noticeably affected its general popularity in academic circles. Different critics have interpreted the phrase in a variety of ways, with pretty confusing results. To refer to "All's Well", as the late Professor Frank Kermode once did, as "a Jacobean problem comedy", sounds impressive in a vague sort of way, but so far as I know he never explained exactly what he meant by it. Having mocked Professor Boas,the original author of the "problem play" tag, for his terminological inexactitude, the twentieth-century critic Ernest Schanzer - rather amusingly, I think - then published a lengthy work entitled "The Problem Plays of Shakespeare", in which he almost completely ignored "All's Well That Ends Well", "Troilus and Cressida" and "Hamlet" and instead devoted himself to long and searching chapters on the particular problems he found in "Measure for Measure", "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra". One in the eye for the critical consensus there!

From Quiz Shakespeare For Dummies

Answer: Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, was the scene of Shakespeare's birth, and his death in 1616. He spent much of his working life in London, however. The town is now home to the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

From Quiz Brush Up on Your Shakespeare

Answer: The Murder of Gonzago

Hamlet bases his play on 'The Murder of Gonzago'. The play is intended to provoke Claudius into admitting that he murdered Hamlet's father.

From Quiz The Printing of Shakespeare's First Folio

Answer: 1623

1603 James I came to the throne of England upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I. James was also King James VI of Scotland. 1616 is the year that Shakespeare died. Some people say he was getting drunk with some of his mates, was caught in a thunderstorm, and died of pneumonia. Interesting as this story might be there is no evidence to suggest it is true. 1632 is the date of the 2nd Folio.

From Quiz Shakespeare's Henry VIII

Answer: Katherine of Aragon

At the beginning of the play Henry is still married to his first wife. During the course of the play he divorces Katherine and marries Anne Boleyn. The play ends with Princess Elizabeth's (future Queen Elizabeth I's) christening. The King's third wife was Jane Seymour, his fourth was Anne of Cleves, his fifth was Katherine Howard, and his last was Katherine Parr. An easy way of remembering their fate is: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

From Quiz Shakespeare's Comedies

Answer: play on

Spoken by Orsino, Duke of Illyria, who is in love with Olivia.

From Quiz Shakespeare for Teenagers

Answer: "See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!"

Romeo says this line in "Romeo and Juliet" during the balcony scene. They are from families that hate one another, yet their love finds a way to overcome that obstacle.

From Quiz Shakespeare or Scripture?

Answer: P & Proverbs

This quote is Proverbs 10:1. One of the pinnacles of Hebrew poetry was parallelism--being clever in a proverb entailed not cleverly rhyming words, but cleverly pairing ideas. In this verse, as in many proverbs, a fruit of wisdom and a fruit of foolishness (the effects of a son's choices on the parents) are succintly contrasted.

From Quiz Troilus and Cressida

Answer: Niece

When the play took place, it had been seven years since the Trojan war began. Troilus was a Trojan prince and Cressida was the niece of Pandarus. He was trying to get Troilus and Cressida together, even remarking that Troilus was the strongest of all the Trojan men. Cressida loved Troilus, but she loved his pursuit of her better.

From Quiz The Great Shakespeare Hoax

Answer: William Ireland

William Henry Ireland is infamous as the man-who-would-be-Shakespeare.

From Quiz Shakespeare' s Sonnet-mania!

Answer: a ship

"It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken." Here, Shakespeare is likening the steadfastness of love to a star by which ships used to take measurements to determine their course.

From Quiz Shakespeare's Riddles

Answer: Malvolio

Malvolio, Olivia's steward in "Twelfth Night", is tricked into thinking that his mistress loves him and conned into some amusing inappropriate behaviour. He comes such a cropper that we begin to feel sorry for him. Shakespeare does not explain why the letters don't really fit Malvolio's name.

From Quiz The Bawdy Bard

Answer: A dish of eggs cooked in oil

Kent - [to Oswald]" What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me!.. you rogue .. I'll make a sop 'o' the moonshine of you ..! ("King Lear" Act II.(ii) line 30)

From Quiz The Sonnets of William Shakespeare

Answer: Number 18

Indeed sonnet 18 is well known. It has been taught to many a literature class, and featured in many other places. For example, it was featured in the films 'Shakespeare In Love' (which makes a lot of sense), and 'Clueless'. I'm sure there are many many more.

From Quiz General Shakespeare

Answer: 1564

Shakespeare was born on April 23rd, 1564, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Oxfordshire, England, to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, and was baptized in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford on the 25th.

From Quiz Shakespeare's Plays

Answer: Hamlet

The famous quote said by Hamlet, Prince of Denmark himself.

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