Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In a quiz written for the place of "Merry and Bawbling Queries", the Bard of Avon asked, "Prithee, when the Duke didst inform Shylock saying, 'We all expect a gentle answer, Jew,' what sense of gentleness might the most gentle Duke have compassed?" (Which of the following conveys a meaning of "gentle" consistent with the usage of Elizabethan times?)
2. In his quiz, Shakespeare asks the following question: "When Hamlet doth, in his feigned ecstasy, importune the fair Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery," to what unreligious and unseemly place might Hamlet allusion make? (For which of the following was "nunnery" slang in Shakespeare's time?)
3. According to the quiz that William Shakespeare purportedly authored, "In Twelfth Night the proud Duke Orsino committed disparagements to the bawbling vessel that Antonio didst captain. Marry, could a bawbling vessel possess a shallow draught and bulk unprizable?"
4. Included in the Bard's queries was this: "Some souls are so generous and forward as to champion the cause of my having first scratched certain words onto foolscap. With which of the preceding words would one be secure if one were to accuse me of their first design?" (Which of the following words is Shakespeare believed to have coined?)
5. Many Shakespearian insults are well known and much beloved. It is not surprising that the Bard included a question regarding them on his quiz. He asks, "If thou wouldst call a man captive, shouldst thou name him caitiff or varlet?" (Which term has "captive" as one of its meanings?)
6. William Shakespeare enters the realm of the occult with his next question. "Three hags take leave from one another on a windswept heath. 'I come graymalkin,' says one. 'Paddock calls' says another. In sooth, with what do these foul witches practice and converse?" (To which of the following might "graymalkin" and "paddock" refer?)
7. Shakespeare had to consider the sensibilities of both his audience and patrons. This is apparent in his next question. "A Bard's discretion can serve him well. One of my best discretions is shown in the words of Imogen in 'Cymbeline'. 'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet?' From whom would the pity come that sad Imogen dost crave?"
8. The next question touches on possible class division in Shakespeare's audience. "Betimes I am concerned for those groundlings who stand in the yard, that their mean experience might not include the pastimes of the nobility, which I must, perforce, portray. Mayhap, gentle reader, thou knowest with what implements quoits be played?" (Which of the following are used in quoits?)
9. War played a large role in Shakespeare's dramas. Not surprisingly, one of the Bard's questions concerns war. "When the loyal Anthony was left alone with the 'bleeding piece of earth' after the cruel slaying of the noble Caesar, what did Anthony prophesy that the Spirit of Caesar would let slip?"
10. I hesitate to include the last question in "Merry and Bawbling Queries", by bard@globe", because it casts doubt on the authorship of the quiz. "In the fifth act of "Henry VIII", what words of eternal wisdom didst the monarch share with his favorite daughter, Elizabeth?" Which of the following suggest that the Bard of Avon did not pen this final question?
Source: Author
uglybird
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
MotherGoose before going online.
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