The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet Quiz

Answer: Arthur Brooke

"The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet" was written by Arthur Brooke and first published in 1562 (two years before Shakespeare was born). It was also reprinted in 1587, a full eight years before the first performance of "Romeo and Juliet" took place.

Answer: Christmas

It was a Christmas party!

"The weary winter nights restore the Christmas games,
And now the season doth invite to banquet townish dames.
And first in Capel's house, the chief of all the kin
Spar'th for no cost, the wonted use of banquets to begin..."

Answer: Two weeks

"He reaveth danger's dread oft-times out of the lover's mind.
By night he passeth here, a week or two in vain;
And for the missing of his mark his grief hath him nigh slain.
And Juliet that now doth lack her heart's relief..."

Answer: Friar Laurence

"Of both the households' wrath, this marriage might appease;
So that they should not rage again, but quite for ever cease
The respite of a day he asketh to devise
What way were best, unknown, to end so great an enterprise.
The wounded man that now doth deadly pains endure,
Scarce patient tarrieth whilst his leech doth make the salve to cure:
So Romeus hardly grants a short day and a night,
Yet needs he must, else must he want his only heart's delight."

Answer: Two months

"The summer of their bliss doth last a month or twain,
But winter's blast with speedy foot doth bring the fall again.
Whom glorious Fortune erst had heaved to the skies."

Not a couple of nights like Shakspeare's "Romeo and Juliet!"

Answer: Friar Laurence's cell

"And trusty Laurence' secret cell he thought the surest place.
In doubtful hap aye best a trusty friend is tried;
The friendly friar in this distress doth grant his friend to hide.
A secret place he hath, well sealed round about,
The mouth of which so close is shut, that none may find it out;
But room there is to walk, and place to sit and rest,
Beside a bed to sleep upon, full soft and trimly drest.
The floor is planked so, with mats it is so warm,
That neither wind nor smoky damps have power him aught to harm.
Where he was wont in youth his fair friends to bestow,
There now he hideth Romeus, whilst forth he goeth to know
Both what is said and done, and what appointed pain,
Is publishéd by trumpet's sound; then home he hies again."

Answer: Sixteen

"By farther leisure had a husband to provide;
Scarce saw she yet full sixteen years: too young to be a bride!"

Shakespeare's Juliet was thirteen!

Answer: Outbreak of the plague

"In mind to take some friar with him, to walk the town about.
But entered once he might not issue out again,
For that a brother of the house, a day before or twain,
Died of the plague -- a sickness which they greatly fear and hate --
So were the brethren charged to keep within their convent gate..."

Answer: Romeus

"And then he cried, with deadly sigh fetched from his mourning heart:
"O Juliet, of whom the world unworthy was,
From which, for world's unworthiness thy worthy ghost did pass,
What death more pleasant could my heart wish to abide
Than that which here it suff'reth now, so near thy friendly side?
Or else so glorious tomb how could my youth have craved,
As in one self-same vault with thee haply to be ingraved?
What epitaph more worth, or half so excellent,
To consecrate my memory, could any man invent,
As this our mutual and our piteous sacrifice
Of life, set light for love?" But while he talketh in this wise,
And thought as yet awhile his dolours to enforce..."

Basically Romeus is saying how she is pale (reference to a ghost)...
and Romeus was the one in Capulet's tomb who was alive.

Answer: A monument for Romeus and Juliet is made, Friar Laurence retires and dies five years later, the nurse is exiled, the Capulets and Montagues end their feud.

Friar Laurence tells the truth WHY Romeus and Juliet killed themselves. Peter supports Friar Laurence by showing a letter Romeus had given to Peter to give to Lord Montague. (Peter was a Montague in the poem). The apothecary is hanged, the nurse is exiled, Peter and Friar Laurence are let go, and a monument is built by the Montagues and Capulets in honour of Romeus and Juliet. Apparently the monument may still be seen today in Verona.