"Upstart Crow" - A 3rd Groat's Worth of Wit (I) Quiz

Answer: Southwark

Kate is adamant that she will not marry the old and warty Lord Egeus, even though he is the richest man in Southwark, in spite of both Will and Kit Marlowe attempting to persuade her otherwise. Will comes up with a plan to make Kate fall for Lord Egeus, which proves unsuccessful, but which gives Will the inspiration for his most famous comic character, the donkey-headed weaver Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Answer: Nigel Planer

Nigel Planer has had a long working history with Ben Elton. Before their collaboration in "The Young Ones", they both performed at The Comedy Store in London, and once in television they continued to work closely, with "Filthy, Rich and Catflap" following on immediately after the classic student sitcom.

More recently, Nigel Planer starred on stage in "We Will Rock You", the musical based around the songs of Queen, which was co-written by Ben Elton.

Answer: Puck

In English folklore, Puck is a mischievous woodland dweller notorious for playing tricks who, in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", is the court jester to Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of the Fairies. In "Upstart Crow", Will meets a character who calls himself Puck and, for five shillings, provides him with a potion to be applied to the eyes claiming that, upon waking, the user will fall in love with the first person they see. Puck is played by the actor Ken Nwosu.

Answer: Mushrooms

When Susanna and Will venture out to pick mushrooms, Anne warns them to be careful owing to the last time that Sue had brought mushrooms home, which led to her grandfather having "doors to spiritual perception" opened, and seeing a vision of Jesus in his dumpling and onion ring.

Answer: A funny name and an inspired visual gag

When returning from the rehearsal with Burbage's demand on his mind, Will asks Bottom what the funny name could be. Immediately afterwards, Kit arrives wearing an ass's head making them all laugh. Will, in spite of his genius, does not at first put these together with his requirement, it being a fortnight until he puts two and two together and comes up with the donkey-headed Nick Bottom.

Answer: Hamlet

Will is somewhat aggrieved when Kate, Marlowe and Bottom describe the central character in his tragic masterpiece as "a grumpy, whiny, self-important student who does absolutely zero coursework and will not get over himself". Will himself describes the play as "a forensically astute journey into the tortured heart of the human soul", with a particularly perceptive death scene at the end.

Answer: Steak and kidney

In "Upstart Crow", Robert Greene's literary salon is held as part of a master plan to discredit Will as writer of his plays. This links to the Marlovian Theory, which espouses that it was in fact Christopher Marlowe who wrote Shakespeare's plays, as Shakespeare, being a mere 'townschool spotty grotty' and a 'country bumshank', did not have the learning to have written such works. Ben Elton, who has dismissed the Marlovian Theory, introduces this into "Upstart Crow" as a satirical swipe at modern proponents of the idea.

Answer: A coat of arms

The real John Shakespeare originally applied for his coat of arms in 1569. This application included reference to an ancestor who had been honoured by King Henry VII. Although this application was subsequently withdrawn, it was later reentered, with arms eventually granted in 1596.

In "Upstart Crow", John Shakespeare celebrates his first moments of being a gentleman by urinating out of the window onto the street.

Answer: Ben Jonson

The invitees to Greene's gathering have all had Shakespearean authorship theories applied to them. Marlowe was first suggested as the author of Shakespeare's works in 1895 by Wilbur G. Ziegler in a preface to his novel "It was Marlowe: a story of the secret of three centuries".

The Baconian theory was first attributed to the American writer Delia Bacon in the mid 19th century, while Oxford's potential authorship was first speculated by J. Thomas Looney in the book "Shakespeare Identified in Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", published in 1920.

Answer: Deptford

Christopher Marlowe died in 1593, and is believed to have been killed in a house in Deptford. There are theories however that he faked his own death in an effort to avoid prosecution for subversive atheism, which is now linked to the Marlovian Theory of Shakespearean Authorship.

In "Upstart Crow", Kit originally asks for help in staging his own death from Will, for which Will plans to use the climactic death scene from "Hamlet" as the basis. However, Kit comes up with his own plan that is significantly less convoluted.