Shakespeare Character Anagrams Quiz

Answer: Othello

"Othello" is the Shakespeare play most likely to have a black actor in the lead. The play also boasts the number one villain of all time, Iago, according to that bastion of literary knowledge, "The Christian Science Monitor".

Answer: Desdemona

Desdemona is the central female character in the the tragedy of "Othello". Much to her father's dismay, she elopes with the Moorish nobleman and becomes entangled in a web of lies, jealousy and deception which ultimately leads to the death of both her and Othello. To be fair, it is the snubbed "inhuman dog" Iago whose evil nature really is responsible for so many "men so dead" at the play's end.

Her name is derived from the Greek, and really means "ill-fated" not "of the devil."

Answer: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is literature's iconic sleepwalker, and is additionally cursed with a terminal case of obsessive compulsive disorder, as she tries in vain to wash the blood of multiple murders from her hands.

Answer: Cleopatra

Is it history, comedy, tragedy, or simply a story of the greatest romantic love triangle of all time? With its sweeping scope, varied locales, and most fascinating, richly developed female lead character, "Antony And Cleopatra" remains one of Shakespeare's most analyzed and critically discussed plays.

The mythology built up around Cleopatra's life, and especially her death, make it the perfect vehicle for his dramatic vision. According to History.com, during the height of their affair in Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra formed a drinking society called "The Inimitable Livers".

They spent the winter of B.C. 41-40 feasting, drinking wine, playing games, and pulling tricks on the locals. Fun vacation!

Answer: Touchstone

Touchstone is the court jester to Duke Frederick in the comedy "As You Like It". He can be well summed up by the quote, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool" (Act V, Scene I). Historically, a touchstone was a small, smooth, flat piece of stone such as slate, which was used to test the purity and veracity of a precious metal such as gold, which would leave a trace on the stone based on how pure it was. Metaphorically, therefore, the term can refer to anything which measures the truth, validity or worth of something in question. Synonyms include "acid test" and "litmus test".

Answer: Romeo Montague

Consider just a few of the many stage and film adaptations of arguably the most familiar tragedy in the English language:

1936 film "Romeo and Juliet" - director, George Cukor; starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard
1957 Broadway musical "West Side Story" - director, Jerome Robbins; music, Leonard Bernstein; lyrics, Stephen Sondheim
1961 film "West Side Story" - director, Jerome Robbins; starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymar
1998 film "Shakespeare In love" - starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes (story within a story)
2011 film "Gnomeo and Juliet" - animated retelling for children (lovers do not die!)
2013 Broadway revival "Romeo and Juliet" - starring Condola Rashad (African American) and Orlando Bloom

Answer: Apemanthus

"Timon of Athens" is one of the least frequently produced of Shakespeare's plays; in fact, it was never produced in his time, as it was unfinished when he died. Additionally, some have speculated that its controversial subject matter, i.e. the irresponsible and wasteful spending of the upper class, would have been poorly received by the audience it would have played for. The contemporary king, James I, was well known for running up huge debts with little care for long term consequences.

Apemanthus, whose name is sometimes given as Apemantus or Apermantus, is a philosopher who argues that people are only friendly to Timon because of his money.

Answer: Thomas Wolsey

Sorry about the "wot" in place of "what," but it was too good to pass up. Cardinal Wolsey, along with Thomas Cranmer, is one of two religious characters named Thomas who play a role in "Henry The VIII".

Answer: Katherine of Arragon

The Collins online dictionary defines "afront" as "(archaic) in front of" so this works even though "affront," with two f's, meaning to insult, outrage or offend, would work even better as a Shakespearean double entendre. I did find the double "R" Arragon, which works exactly in the anagram, in a few online references, even though Aragon with one "R" is much more common.

In "The Merchant of Venice", Shakespeare includes a Prince of Arragon as one of the characters.

Answer: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

The two college students from Hamlet's past have been studied and analyzed ad nauseum, but they still fascinate. With friends like this, who needs enemies? Tom Stoppard's 1966 play "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead" takes its name from Act V, Scene II, line 411 in Hamlet.

In Stoppard's play, described as tragicomic, absurdist and existential, he tells the story of Hamlet from the perspective of these two characters.