Shakespeare Grab Bag Trivia Quiz

Answer: Risk

The inscription on the lead casket reads that whoever chooses it "must give and hazard all he hath." He who chooses the gold casket, however, will get "what many men desire," and he who chooses the silver will get "as much as he deserves." The motif of risk taking permeates the play. Antonio hazards all (his life--the pound of flesh) for friendship. Bassanio hazards all for marriage. Even Shylock hazards all for revenge--had Antonio paid on time, he would have gained nothing, not even money. Shylock alone loses his gamble.

Answer: Don John

The motivations of Othello, Shylock, and Richard III are carefully developed. Don John of "Much Ado About Nothing," however, has no cause to hate his brother, who has forgiven him and reconciled with him even after Don John apparently rebelled against him. Yet Don John says, "If I can cross him anyway, I bless myself every way." There is no motivation for his melancholy: "There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; therefore is my sadness without limit." He would "rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace."

Answer: Edgar

Edmund is Gloucester's other son, who deceives him and causes the misunderstanding with Edgar in the first place. There are many parallels between Leer and Gloucester. Both fathers misunderstand and wrong their children; both end up in exile in the storm, rejected by the other children they thought had regarded them most. And both are reconciled to their misunderstood children before they die.

Answer: As You Like It

In "As You Like It," we are shown a fallen world, one that is no longer golden, a place where "we ripe and ripe and rot and rot, and thereby hangs a tale." But we are also told a story of redemption and reconciliation, where Oliver is rescued not only from a snake, but from his darker self.

Answer: King Lear

Gloucester makes the "flies to wanton boys" analogy, but at length he learns how much he has wronged his own son ("I stumbled when I saw") and is reconciled to him.

Answer: Richard II

Richard II is keenly aware of the symbolic power of the kingship, and he is engrossed with the idea of the divine right of kings. When he is deposed, he makes allusion to Christ's crucifixion, with references to Pilate, Judas, Golgotha, and his "sour cross."

Answer: False

This is true of his earlier, not his later plays. In his later plays, he tended to move from rhymed couplets toward blank verse and prose, which also had an effect of increasing realism. Read an early play like "Romeo and Juliet," and you will notice the large number of couplets used.

Answer: Elbow

A malapropism is when one word is replaced with another word that sounds similar but means something very different. This usually creates a comic effect. Elbow refers to "notorious benefactors" when he means malefactors, says a woman was never "respected with man" when he means suspected, and so on. Dogberry has many more, my favorite being when he says his captives will be "condemned into everlasting redemption."

Answer: Lust

The relationship between Phoebe and Silvus represents the pastoral, romantic ideal, and thus mocks that ideal. The relationship between Orlando and Rosalind represents true love. But it is lust that drives the third relationship.

Answer: "Measure for Measure" and "Merchant of Venice"

This theme is clear in "Measure for Measure," where Angelo represents the strictures of law and does not understand how to "condemn the fault and not the actor." The theme is also apparent in "Merchant of Venice," where Shylock legalistically demands his pound of flesh, and Portia delivers her famous "the quality of mercy is not strained" speech.

Answer: A problem play

Problem plays often have dark undercurrents but tend to end happily. They express a great deal of cynicism, but also offer us characters who can serve as ideals. "Measure for Measure" is one prime example of this kind of play.

Answer: False

These are generally the characteristics of tragedy, not comedy. In comedy, the hero is likeable, but caricatured; he is an ordinary mortal, with wit and sophistication and many follies. Characters in comedies are usually judged against a relative moral standard.

Answer: Portia

In "Merchant of Venice," Portia, disguised as Balthasar, orchestrates the resolution of the play. Rosalind also does a bit of cross dressing in "As You Like It," disguising herself as Ganymede. She likewise brings about the play's resolution in this guise.

Answer: His mistress's eyebrow

"All the world's a stage" says Jaques in his famous "Seven Ages of Man" speech in "As You Like It." He continues, "and all the men and women on it merely players. They have their exits and their entrances..." The stage symbolizes life, because it is the platform upon which men play parts.

The view is a bleak one; men are acting through life, rather than living sincerely. The lover makes an ode to his mistress's "eyebrow" the soldier seeks "the bubble reputation" even in the cannon'­s mouth.

Answer: Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?

"Why so Pale and Wan" was written by Sir John Suckling and first printed in his play "Aglaura" in 1638, several years after Shakespeare's death.

Answer: Love

This love sonnet, which begins, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments," takes a key from the Anglican marriage service for its first line. The minister asks that if anyone knows of "just impediment" why the couple should not be jointed, he should "speak now, or forever hold his peace."

Answer: weeds

This sonnet begins, "They that have power to hurt and will do none." According to the "Norton Anthology" Volume One, this closing line appears in an "apocryphal Shakespearean play" called Edward III, which was "licensed December 2, 1595."

Answer: His christening in 1564

After his christening, however, there is a long silence in the historical record, until his marriage to Anne Hathaway. Then again, after the birth of his twins, we hear no more of him until 1592, when it is assumed he is referred to as the "upstart crow" Robert Greene criticizes.

Answer: The Earl of Southampton

It is assumed Southampton was Shakespeare's patron. The Earl of Oxford is proposed by a minority of scholars as the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Oxford's daughter was engaged to Southampton at about this time.

Answer: The Rape of Lucrece

Tarquinius raped Lucrece, and he was expelled from Rome as a consequence. After his exile, the Republic was established.