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London Literary Allusions Trivia Quiz

You will need to know some literary history to do well in this quiz.

A multiple-choice quiz by londoneye98. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
londoneye98

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
339,636

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
455

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Which Renaissance poet wrote the line,
"London, thou art the Flower of Cities all!" Hint

William Dunbar

Christopher Marlowe

Ben Jonson

Sir Thomas Wyatt

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Question 2 of 10

2. What is London called in William Shakespeare's play "Cymbeline"? Hint

Londinium

Londres

London

Lud's Town

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Question 3 of 10

3. Who in the eighteenth century wrote a poem called "Farewell to London" which begins,
"Dear, damn'd, distracting Town, Farewell!" Hint

William Cowper

Alexander Pope

John Gay

Oliver Goldsmith

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Question 4 of 10

4. Which one of these quotations does *not* come from the mouth of the great Samuel Johnson? Hint

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

It is the folly of many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

There is in London all that life can afford.

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Question 5 of 10

5. Who described London as "a great wen growing upon the fair face of England"? Hint

Queen Charlotte

William Cobbett

Erasmus Darwin

John Wilkes

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Question 6 of 10

6. Which one of these phrases occurs in William Blake's poem "London"? Hint

bridal tomb

marriage-hearse

harlot's tear

infant's curse

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Question 7 of 10

7. Which Romantic poet wrote that:
"Hell is a city much like London,
A populous and a smoky city"? Hint

William Wordsworth

Thomas Chatterton

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats

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Question 8 of 10

8. Which Victorian novelist claimed that "London is a modern Babylon" and that "London is a roost for every bird"? Hint

William Makepeace Thackeray

Wilkie Collins

Benjamin Disraeli

Charles Dickens

9. The Irish poet W.B.Yeats referred to "this melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually". In which London street did Yeats live for many years? Hint

Woburn Walk

Shaftesbury Avenue

Baker Street

The Strand

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Question 10 of 10

10. Which twentieth-century poet wrote,
"I thought of London spread out in the sun,
Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat"? Hint

John Heath-Stubbs

W.H. Auden

Philip Larkin

Geoffrey Grigson

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which Renaissance poet wrote the line, "London, thou art the Flower of Cities all!"

Answer: William Dunbar

The line was not written by an Englishman! Dunbar, the celebrated Scots poet who visited London around 1500, was nicknamed "the Rhymer of Scotland" by some of his acquaintances there.

2. What is London called in William Shakespeare's play "Cymbeline"?

Answer: Lud's Town

The name appears four times in the play. The word "London" appears (63 times, I believe) only in Shakespeare's history plays, not in any of his other works.

3. Who in the eighteenth century wrote a poem called "Farewell to London" which begins, "Dear, damn'd, distracting Town, Farewell!"

Answer: Alexander Pope

It's one of the very few poems by Pope not written in heroic couplets. He's going to stay in the countryside, and he doesn't seem unhappy about it.

4. Which one of these quotations does *not* come from the mouth of the great Samuel Johnson?

Answer: It is the folly of many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

This was written by Jonathan Swift, although I think it sounds exactly like Johnson!

5. Who described London as "a great wen growing upon the fair face of England"?

Answer: William Cobbett

It is not a complimentary reference! London has been nicknamed "the Great Wen" ever since.

6. Which one of these phrases occurs in William Blake's poem "London"?

Answer: marriage-hearse

"But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage-hearse". (final stanza)

7. Which Romantic poet wrote that: "Hell is a city much like London, A populous and a smoky city"?

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

The poem is 'Peter Bell the Third', a satirical response to Wordsworth's earlier poem 'Peter Bell'.

8. Which Victorian novelist claimed that "London is a modern Babylon" and that "London is a roost for every bird"?

Answer: Benjamin Disraeli

Disraeli was quite a prolific novelist, and found time to be British Prime Minister on a couple of occasions too.

Answer: Woburn Walk

On the edge of Bloomsbury, it's a pleasant little sidestreet, now pedestrianised, with the inevitable blue plaque on the house in question.

10. Which twentieth-century poet wrote, "I thought of London spread out in the sun, Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat"?

Answer: Philip Larkin

It comes from the title-poem to Larkin's well-known collection "The Whitsun Weddings".

Source: Author londoneye98

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