William Shakespeare: General Knowledge Quiz

Answer: Singer

Shakespeare wasn't a singer! Well, he might have been able to sing but he is definitely not known as a singer! Shakespeare didn't just write; he also acted, in plays written by others as well as his own.

Answer: Errors

His shortest play is A Comedy of Errors. This play has only 1,787 lines. It also contains only 14,369 words in the entire play.

Answer: Hamlet

His longest play is actually Hamlet. The play is 4,070 lines long. This is over twice the length of his shortest play. If staged in full the audience usually needs two intervals (intermissions) and the whole lasts 4.5 hours or a little longer.

Answer: Romeo and Julian

This question was quite cheeky. If you just read the first word and think you have heard of it then you will get it wrong. All of the plays were right apart from Romeo and Julian. The actual play is very famous and is called Romeo and Juliet, not Julian!

Answer: Anne Hathaway

Shakespeare got married at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway. Anne was aged 26 (eight years older than Shakespeare). Some documents said they got married at the Temple Grafton, which is in Warwiskshire, very close to Stratford, but the claim that the marriage took place there could be wrong.

Answer: Susanna, Hamnet and Judith

Susanna was Shakespeare's first born child with Hamnet and Judith being born at the same time, making them twins. Susanna was baptized on 26 May 1583 and Hamnet and Judith were baptized on 2 February 1585.

Answer: curst

Shakespeare made a curse on whoever moved his body from his final resting place.

Can you believe it's true? Shakespeare's epitaph was:

"Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones."

And nobody has ever moved his bones

Answer: False

Shakespeare wrote a total of 154 sonnets not 164. Sonnet 138 is probably among his most famous:

When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue,
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

Answer: William Arden

William Arden, one of Shakespeare's relatives on his mother's side, was arrested for plotting against the Queen Elizabeth I. He was then imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed. That just proves that you really can't pick your family, can you?

Answer: Hamnet

The only son of Shakespeare, Hamnet, died at the early age of 11. He was buried on the 11th August. It is believed Hamnet is the reason Shakespeare wrote the play 'Hamlet'. Hamnet was believed by some to have died from Bubonic Plague.