A "C" Of Troubles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Henry VI Part 2

Jack Cade was an actual peasant leader whose 1450 rebellion forms part of the narrative of the second of Shakespeare's three "Henry VI" plays. In Shakespeare's play, the revolt is instigated by Richard, Duke of York, to test whether the common people would support York in his plot to take the English throne. Cade and his rebels march on London, and are at first successful, but the revolt collapses when Lord Clifford, a supporter of King Henry, persuades the rebels to surrender. Cade escapes but is later killed while searching for food.

Answer: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Doctor Caius is a French physician who is one of three suitors for the hand of Anne Page. Anne's mother, Mistress Margaret Page, favours the match, although her father would prefer her to marry the dim-witted Abraham Slender. Anne herself, of course, much prefers an impecunious but good-looking youth named Fenton.

As an archetypical comedy Frenchman, Dr Caius is the butt of much humour at the expense of his "amusing" accent and Gallic short temper. At the end of the play, his plot to steal away with Anne ends in failure, and he finds himself married instead to a schoolboy who was dressed as a fairy.

Answer: The Tempest

In "The Tempest", Caliban is a monstrous semi-human creature who inhabited the island before Prospero and his daughter Miranda came to live there. When they first arrive, Caliban attempts to rape Miranda and is consequently forced to serve Prospero. While undoubtedly a savage creature, he is shown to have some tender feelings, and is freed to live out his life on the island when the other characters leave at the end of the play.

Answer: As You Like It

Celia is the cousin and best friend of Rosalind in "As You Like It". At the start of the play, Rosalind is banished from the court of her uncle, Duke Frederick, and flees with Celia and the court jester, Touchstone, to the Forest of Arden. Here they meet Rosalind's father, who is himself living in exile in the forest, although as Rosalind is disguised as a boy, he fails to recognise her.

By the end of the play, following various romantic entanglements and misunderstandings, Celia has married a youth named Oliver de Boys, while Rosalind has married Oliver's brother, Orlando.

Answer: Measure for Measure

At the start of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", the audience learns that Claudio has been sentenced to death for getting his fiancé, Juliet, pregnant, the newly-appointed Deputy of Vienna having decided to revive a defunct law that punishes extra-marital sex with death. Claudio's sister Isabella, a novice nun, goes to the Deputy (Angelo) to plead for her brother's life, but he hypocritically gives her an ultimatum: he will only pardon Claudio if she agrees to sleeps with him. Isabella refuses, and for a while it looks as if Claudio will die, but in the end another prisoner is executed in his place, and he survives to be reconciled with Juliet at the end of the play.

Answer: King Lear

Cordelia is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters. In the opening act of the play, she is disinherited by her father for refusing to exaggerate her affection for him, unlike his two other daughters, Goneril and Regan. Fortunately, the King of France is impressed by her honesty, and offers to marry her despite her having been disowned by her father. Later in the play, she leads the French army in an invasion of England designed to restore Lear to his throne, but (in one of the most unremittingly tragic endings in all Shakespeare) she is captured and hanged, and dies in her father's arms as he realises that she was the only daughter who truly loved him.

Answer: Love's Labour's Lost

Costard is a rustic youth in "Love's Labour's Lost". When the King of Navarre declares that no woman should be allowed within a mile of his court, Costard is the first person to break this injunction by carrying on with the country wench, Jacquenetta.

He ends up carrying love letters between various lords and ladies, and generally ensuring that the injunction is thoroughly ignored. In the comical "Pageant of the Nine Worthies" presented at the end of the play he takes the role of Pompey the Great.

Answer: Richard III

George, Duke of Clarence is the second son of Richard, Duke of York, who was a claimant to the throne of England during the Wars of the Roses (1455-87). At the start of Shakespeare's play, Richard's first son has just been crowned King Edward IV, but the third son, Richard of Gloucester (soon to be King Richard III) declares his intention to conspire his own way to the throne.

As part of this plan, he has Clarence confined in the Tower of London for treason, and then dispatched by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine.

Answer: Othello

Cassio is a soldier who is a friend of Othello, General of the Venetian army, and who before the play begins has been promoted by Othello over the head of Iago, another soldier. Iago doesn't take this well and declares his determination to extract his revenge on both men. By means of various subterfuges, he persuades Othello that Cassio has been having an affair with Desdemona, Othello's new wife - a complete fabrication. Othello, driven mad with suspicion, kills first Desdemona and then himself. Rather too late, Iago's role in all this is discovered, and Cassio (promoted as Othello's successor) is left to decide on Iago's punishment.

Answer: The Winter's Tale

In "The Winter's Tale", Camillo is a lord in the service of the Sicilian King Leontes. When the King becomes convinced (incorrectly) that his wife, Hermione, has been unfaithful to him with Polixenes, the visiting King of Bohemia, he orders Camillo to poison Polixenes. Camillo instead warns Polixenes that his life is in danger, and the two of them escape back to Bohemia. Sixteen years later, after some further bucolic adventures in rural Bohemia, Camillo and Polixenes return to Sicily to be reconciled with Leontes, and the play ends happily.