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What Did Hamlet Say? Trivia Quiz

Hamlet's the one who said "To be or not to be / That is the question" and "Alas, poor Yorick"--right? But, that's not the question or the answer in this quiz. What did Hamlet say in these situations, taken in the order they appear?

A multiple-choice quiz by nannywoo. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
nannywoo

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
355,022

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
871

Awards
Top 10% Quiz

Last 3 plays: Guest 162 (6/10), Guest 72 (3/10), Guest 64 (3/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. In Act 1 of "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, when King Claudius calls Hamlet his cousin and his son, what is Hamlet's reply? Hint

"A little more than kin and less than kind."

"I would my father look'd but with my eyes."

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."

"My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules."

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. When Shakespeare's Hamlet and his friend Horatio discuss the hasty marriage of Hamlet's mother to his Uncle Claudius soon after his father's funeral, what does Hamlet ironically propose as the reason? Hint

drunkenness

thrift

impending war

revenge

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. In Act 2 of Shakespeare's play, what does Hamlet say when Polonius asks, "What do you read, my Lord?" Hint

"Words, words, words."

"...Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light."

"The Mousetrap"

"The play's the thing to catch the conscience of the king."

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"-in the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy-Hamlet says that conscience has a specific effect. What does Hamlet say that conscience does? Hint

"...keep the strong in awe."

"...make cowards of us all."

"...beggars any man that keeps it."

"...multiplies in a man's bosom."

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Question 5 of 10

5. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's play, where does Hamlet tell his girlfriend Ophelia to go? Hint

with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

hell

a nunnery

behind the arras

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Question 6 of 10

6. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"-- as Hamlet coaches the actors about performing his rewritten version of their play-- how does he advise the player to "Speak the speech"? Hint

"...trippingly on the tongue."

"...with words, words, words."

"Take physic, pomp; / Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel."

"Blow winds, and crack your cheeks!"

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. As the "play within a play" is performed in Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" the king asks Hamlet for the name of the play. What does Hamlet say the play is called? Hint

"The Conscience of the King"

"The Mousetrap"

"Words, Words, Words"

"The Scottish Play"

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. In Act 4 of Shakespeare's play, after Hamlet has accidentally killed Polonius and dragged away his body, the king asks, "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" What does Hamlet say? Hint

"Behind the arras."

"In Purgatory."

"At supper."

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. Most of us know of the graveyard scene in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when Hamlet holds a skull uncovered by the gravediggers and declares, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." But what childhood memory does Hamlet have of Yorick doing "a thousand times"? Hint

"He hath dawdled me on his knee and sung 'Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross' a thousand times...."

"He hath read to me of Troy and Camelot a thousand times...."

"He hath bore me on his back a thousand times...."

"He hath eaten me out of house and home a thousand times...."

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. Hamlet does not speak the last lines of Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" but does get some last words in Act 5. What are the last four words uttered by Hamlet in the play, in the speech that begins, "O, I die, Horatio!"? Hint

"O, I am slain!"

"...the rest is silence."

"Look there! Look there!"

"...my knife's sharp point."

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In Act 1 of "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, when King Claudius calls Hamlet his cousin and his son, what is Hamlet's reply?

Answer: "A little more than kin and less than kind."

Act 1, Scene 2, line 65. When Hamlet cryptically says "less than kind" he is using a pun, because in Early Modern English "kind" could mean "natural" or "lawful" in addition to the meanings we would take from the phrase in Modern English. Hamlet feels the marriage of his mother and his paternal uncle is unnatural, as is being "kin" in two ways. Once alone, Hamlet speaks the line "My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (1.2.152-153) but does so in a soliloquy, not to the king's face.

The other quotations are from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (2.2.73) and "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" (1.1.61).

Answer: thrift

Act 1, Scene 2, line 147. "Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." In other words, they did it so they could use the leftovers. Drunkenness, revenge, and impending war all are discussed in the play, but in this scene Hamlet and Horatio are joking bitterly about the unseemliness of the hasty wedding, and Hamlet is being sarcastic.

3. In Act 2 of Shakespeare's play, what does Hamlet say when Polonius asks, "What do you read, my Lord?"

Answer: "Words, words, words."

Actors manage to fill the simple repetition in 2.2.193 with suppressed frustration and rage. All the possible answers here refer to "Hamlet" but appear in the context of the "play within a play" in Act 3 and the introduction of the players in Act 2. Polonius utters the words about Roman writers Seneca and Plautus in a comical, jumbled list of dramatic genres (2.2.395-401).

4. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"-in the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy-Hamlet says that conscience has a specific effect. What does Hamlet say that conscience does?

Answer: "...make cowards of us all."

Act 3, Scene 1, line 84. Hamlet is struggling with the conflict between his desire to end it all and his fear, based on Renaissance Christian theology, that life after death might hold worse horrors for a suicide than the life he longs to escape. The other three responses are from Shakespeare's "Richard III" and refer to sins against others, including child murder.

5. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's play, where does Hamlet tell his girlfriend Ophelia to go?

Answer: a nunnery

Act 3, Scene 1, line 122. Hamlet speaks to Ophelia with crudeness and cruelty, saying, "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?"

6. In Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"-- as Hamlet coaches the actors about performing his rewritten version of their play-- how does he advise the player to "Speak the speech"?

Answer: "...trippingly on the tongue."

As Act 3, Scene 2 begins, Hamlet is speaking to the actors who will be performing a play he has revised, but it is obvious that Shakespeare is using this opportunity to call for acting that has "a temperance that may give it smoothness" (lines 7-8). The line "Words, words, words" appears in a different context in "Hamlet"; Shakespeare's "King Lear" is the source of the other two choices.

7. As the "play within a play" is performed in Act 3 of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" the king asks Hamlet for the name of the play. What does Hamlet say the play is called?

Answer: "The Mousetrap"

Hamlet answers that the play is called "The Mousetrap" (3.2.235). (Agatha Christie borrowed the title for a murder mystery play.) At the end of Act 2, Hamlet has stated his purpose: "The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" (2.2.605-606). "Words, words, words" appears in Act 2, Scene 2, line 193. "The Scottish Play" is the way actors refer to Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to avoid the bad luck of uttering its title aloud.

8. In Act 4 of Shakespeare's play, after Hamlet has accidentally killed Polonius and dragged away his body, the king asks, "Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?" What does Hamlet say?

Answer: "At supper."

Act 4, Scene 3, line 18. When the king asks where Polonius is at supper, Hamlet replies, "Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him" (4.3.19-20). Polonius was behind the arras (curtains) in Queen Gertrude's room when Hamlet stabbed him. Stephen Greenblatt's 2002 book "Hamlet in Purgatory" builds on indirect references to Purgatory in Shakespeare's play, but the concept is not directly addressed in "Hamlet" itself. "Am I my brother's keeper?" are the words of Cain in Genesis 4:9.

Answer: "He hath bore me on his back a thousand times...."

Act 5, Scene 1, lines 183-84. The image of Hamlet as a happy little prince riding on the court jester's back is touching and realistic. "He hath eaten me out of house and home" is spoken by Mistress Quickly of the memorable, fat-bellied Falstaff in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part II." I made up the other two.

Answer: "...the rest is silence."

The last line of the play is spoken by the enemy leader Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway, as he gives Hamlet a royal, military burial: "Go bid the soldiers shoot" (5.2.404)."O, I am slain!" is spoken by Polonius, as Hamlet kills him (3.4.26). "Look there! Look there!" are the final words of Shakespeare's character King Lear in the play by the same name, and "...my knife's sharp point" are the last four words spoken by Shakespeare's eponymous Titus Andronicus, just after he kills Lavinia and before he kills Tamora and is killed himself. Bloody Shakespeare!

Source: Author nannywoo

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