Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The first three questions pertain to the mad Ophelia's sad bouquet of flowers and herbs in Act IV of "Hamlet". When Laertes enters, Ophelia gives him an herb which symbolizes "remembrance", and adds (more to the absent Hamlet than to Laertes) "Pray you, love, remember." Which herb is it?
2. Ophelia gives Laertes some flowers which symbolize "thoughts". Their name is derived from the French word for "thoughts". Which flower is it?
3. Ophelia regrets being unable to give any of these flowers, since "they wither'd all when my father died". Which flower are they?
4. Shakespeare's great narrative poem "Venus and Adonis" is a retelling of the mythological story of the goddess of love's ironic infatuation with the indifferent hunter Adonis, and its tragic denouement. Adonis is fatally gored by a wild boar and is found by Venus lying dead in the forest; what flowers spring up around him, watered by his blood?
5. "Where the Bee Sucks, There Suck I" from "The Tempest" is sung by the sprite Ariel, set free at the play's end by his master Prospero. According to the song, Ariel "couches" in the bell of this flower "when owls do cry". What flower is it?
6. At the end of "Love's Labours Lost", two songs are sung; one symbolizes Winter and one Spring. The "Spring" song lists four different flowers; which of these flowers is NOT mentioned?
7. In a beautiful speech from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which begins "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows", Oberon describes to Puck the bower where his wife, Titania, makes her bed. According to this speech, which two kinds of wild roses form a bower over the fairy-queen's bed?
8. In the comedy "Twelfth Night, or What You Will", the melancholy song "Come Away, Death" is sung at the request of Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, who is brooding over his unrequited love for Olivia. The singer of this song asks to be laid in a grove of which "sad" tree?
9. In "Richard II", Act II scene IV, a Welsh captain observes to the Earl of Salisbury that the people believe the King to be dead, because of certain signs in nature. What type of trees, according to the captain, have all withered in the country?
10. Samphire is a succulent herb which grows on rocky cliffs by the sea. It is mentioned by Edgar in Act IV, scene 6 of "King Lear", when he tries to convince his blind father, Gloucester, who wants to end his life, that they are at the edge of a cliff. To heighten the illusion, Edgar describes someone gathering samphire ("Halfway down hangs one who gathers samphire- Dreadful trade!". Samphire gatherers were lowered by rope along the cliff side; it was, indeed, a hazardous task). Which fisherman-saint was samphire named in honor of?
11. Which herb completes this line from Sonnet #99: "The lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of ________ had stol'n thy hair."?
12. In Act IV, scene 1 of "Macbeth", the witches are concocting their vile brew. Among the revolting ingredients is the root of this poisonous herb, which figured in the death of Socrates.
13. In "Romeo and Juliet" what type of fruiting tree grows outside Juliet's window, from which the nightingale sings each night?
14. In Act IV, scene III of "Othello", Desdemona is burdened with a sense of foreboding and thoughts of death. She sings the "Willow song", which she had heard sung as a child by a love-sick maidservant of her mother's who had been abandoned by her lover. Which Italian composer wrote a memorable setting of this song in his operatic version of Shakespeare's tragedy?
15. The comic denouement of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" takes place in Windsor park. The park is dominated by a tree, which is associated with Herne, the ghostly hunter of Windsor. What type of tree is it?
Source: Author
jouen58
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Bruyere before going online.
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