Shakespeare's Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Julia

We start with what is believed to be Shakespeare's first play, written between 1589 and 1592. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" has the smallest named cast of any Shakespeare play, with only twelve named characters.

Proteus's Veronese girlfriend is Julia. Soon after arriving in Milan, both Valentine and Proteus fall in love with Sylvia, the daughter of the Duke of Milan. Lucetta is Julia's maid in Verona. Speed is Valentine's clownish servant.

Answer: Bianca

The bad-tempered Katherina Minola is the 'shrew' from the title of Shakespeare's play, and the focus of the story is her relationship with Petruchio. Bianca, the other sister of the Paduan lord Baptista, has sworn not to marry until Katherina has done so, with the result that Bianca's various suitors (Gremio, Lucentio and Hortensio) agree to work together to get Katherina married off.

In the 1967 Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film version of the play, Natasha Pyne plays Bianca. In the 1953 adaptation, "Kiss Me Kate", Ann Miller plays Lois Lane (ie Bianca).

The alternatives are the three major female characters in another Shakespeare play, "The Comedy of Errors".

Answer: Love's Labors Lost

The primary plot of "Love's Labors Lost" is the battle in which the noble gentlemen of Navarre, King Ferdinand and his lords, Berowne, Dumaine and Longaville, stand up to their demanding women.

In Kenneth Branagh's 2000 film adaptation of the play, Geraldine McEwan plays a female version of Shakespeare's originally-male Holofernes, Italian actress Stefania Rocca plays Jaquenetta, Welshman Anthony O'Donnell appears as Moth, and Jimmy Yull, who will be familiar to viewers of UK TV's "Eastenders", plays Dull.

Answer: Richard II

Sir John Bussy was an MP for Lincolnshire and Rutland. As Speaker of the House of Commons from 1393 until 1398, he was a strong supporter of Richard II. Sir William Bagot was the High Sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Sir Henry Green served as MP for Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire and Wiltshire at various times during the 1390s.

These three were known as the 'continual councilors' to the eccentric Richard II, who were accused by the future King Henry IV of misleading the king. Bussy and Green were executed after the king's abdication, both in real life and in the Shakespeare play. Bagot escaped to Ireland but was later recaptured.

Answer: Romeo

Benvolio is Lord Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin in "Romeo and Juliet". He tries both to keep Romeo out of trouble and to prevent violence between the Capulet and Montague families. In a sense, though, Benvolio is the cause of the entire problem, since it was he who took Romeo to the Capulet party where he first met Juliet (when Romeo was sad because he couldn't see Rosaline).

Answer: Weaver

The 'play-within-a-play' in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is performed by a clumsy and foolish theatrical group called the Mechanicals. The members of the group are all Athenian craftsmen: the leader of the group is the carpenter, Peter Quince, who plays the part of Prologue; Thisbe is played by the bellows-mender, Francis Flute; Tom Snout, the tinker, plays Wall; the joiner, Snug, plays the lion; and Robin Starveling, who plays Moonshine, is a tailor. Nick Bottom, who plays the part of Pyramus, is a weaver by trade.

Answer: Antonio

For the best part of four centuries, Shylock was always portrayed as an evil character. The tendency today, though, is to portray him as a tragic figure who behaves as he does because of the way he has been treated by society.

The middle-aged merchant and the title character of the play is Antonio. Generally honest and generous in nature, he is also anti-Semitic, which was both a common and a wholly acceptable attitude to have in Shakespeare's time.

Of the alternatives, Bassanio is Antonio's friend and suitor to the rich heiress Portia; Lorenzo is a friend of Antonio and Bassanio who is in love with Shylock's daughter, Jessica; and Leonardo is Bassanio's slave.

Answer: Fool/Jester

Trinculo is the jester in the court of King Alfonso in "The Tempest". Along with his friend, Stephano the King's butler and the witch's son Caliban, he plots against Prospero.

The first literary appearance of Thersites is as a soldier in the Greek army during the Trojan Wars in Homer's "Iliad". By the time he shows up in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida", he has become a comic servant who is described as "a deformed and scurrilous Grecian".

Although directly addressed only as 'Fool' in "Twelfth Night", we learn the name of Lady Olivia's household clown when Curio refers to him as "Feste the jester".
Touchstone has two roles in "As You Like It". His actual role is as court jester in the household of the usurper Duke Frederick, but he also doubles as a narrator of sorts, his asides helping the audience to a better understanding of the play's characters and events.

Other court jesters in Shakespeare's plays include the one simply named 'Fool' in "King Lear", a servant named 'Clown' in "Othello" and Lavatch, the clown in the household of the Countess of Rousillon in "All's Well That Ends Well".

Answer: Troilus and Cressida

"Troilus and Cressida" is set during the later years of the Trojan War. The play ends with the death of the Trojan prince Hector, whose nobility both highlights and contrasts with the characteristics of pride and deceit that epitomize their Greek enemy, most notably Achilles. Along with Hector's death also comes the destruction of the love between the play's two title characters.

Answer: Cymbeline

Also sometimes called "Cymbeline, King of Britain", the play tells the story of an early Celtic King of Britain. The story revolves around the secret marriage of the princess Imogen (to Posthumus), the kidnap of the King's legitimate male heirs by the banished lord Belarius, and the plotting of the Queen (Cymneline's second wife) to kill both Imogen and Cymbeline in order that her son, Cloten, can inherit the throne.