Bard Plots Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Comedy of Errors

An early Shakespeare play and his shortest, "The Comedy of Errors" is a comic farce. The main elements of humour come from slapstick and mistaken identity. Puns and wordplay also contribute. The play's title has become an idiom. The play was an adaptation of the play "Menaechmi" by the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 - 184 BCE).

A reference to the wars of succession in France (1589 to 1595) and a record of a performance in Gray's Inn Hall in 1594 help to date it.

Answer: The Taming of the Shrew

Another comedy, "The Taming of the Shrew" ("The Shrew") does not sit well with more modern views on gender equality as it is essentially a play about female submissiveness. There are other interpretations such as Katherina (the shrew) has fallen in love and accepted the wifely role, or is being sarcastic in her final speech.

Dating the play is complicated by the existence of a contemporary play with an almost identical plot, namely "A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called the taming of a Shrew" ("A Shrew"). "A Shrew" is dated to 1594 while lines in other contemporary plays point to "The Shrew" being on stage before June 1592.

Answer: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Considered by some as Shakespeare's weakest play, it may have been written in the early 1590s. Seen as relatively immature, it nevertheless contains themes repeated and developed in later plays. These include a heroine dressed as a boy, conflict between friendship and love, and how those in love may behave foolishly. Shakespeare is believed to have drawn inspiration from the 16th century bestseller "Los Siete Libros de la Diana" ("Diana") by Portuguese writer Jorge de Montemayor (1559).

Answer: Timon of Athens

One of the Shakespearean tragedies, it has some untypical characteristics such as narrative inconsistencies, differing styles at times and long lines that don't scan. These have led some scholars to conclude that "Timon of Athens" was a collaborative work.

The favourite candidate is the Jacobean playwright and poet Thomas Middleton. If Middleton was involved, the most likely date for completion would be between 1605 and 1608. The play was based on an Athenian citizen who acquired an almost legendary reputation for misanthropy.

He lived during the era of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).

Answer: Othello

"The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice" has proved to be one of Shakespeare's more popular plays. Jealousy and racism are themes that are associated with the play. It was Iago (in Act 3 Scene 3) who supplied the idiom that jealousy is a green-eyed monster.

A novella in the 1565 short story collection "Gli Ecatommoti" by the Italian novelist Giovanni Battista Giraldi (nicknamed Cinthio) provided the main inspiration for the play, although a number of additional influences have been recognised.

The play was written between 1601 (when one of the literary sources was published) and 1604 when a performance was recorded.

Answer: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight character in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" comedy, also appeared in the earlier "Henry IV" plays. Despite this, the play is set in the contemporary (for Shakespeare) Elizabethan era. Tradition has it that Queen Elizabeth I, having enjoyed Falstaff in "Henry IV", commanded Shakespeare to write a play to a tight deadline about Falstaff in love.

It was published in 1602 but may have been performed as early as 1597. Regarded as one of Shakespeare's lesser works, the "Merry Wives" version of Falstaff is considered a shadow of the "Henry IV" version.

Answer: All's Well That Ends Well

Included in the "First Folio", a collection of 36 Shakespeare's plays published in 1623 seven years after his death, "All's Well That Ends Well" is in the comedy section. It is also one of the three plays labelled 'problem plays' by critic F. S. Boas in 1896.

In essence these are plays with complex and ambiguous tone, resulting in a shift between comic elements and darker psychological drama. The inspiration for this play came from tale III, 9 of "The Decameron" by the 14th century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio.

Answer: The Tempest

"The Tempest" is one of a grouping of Shakespeare's last plays labelled 'late romances' by Edward Dowden in his book "Shakespeare" (1877). Others now prefer the term tragicomedy or romance for these complex plays. They were written towards the end of Shakespeare's career. "The Tempest" was possibly the last play he wrote alone and is dated to the period 1610-1611. Some see the play's central character Prospero as partly depicting the author himself. The play first appeared in print in 1623, based on a handwritten copy by scrivener Ralph Crane and bearing some of his stylistic edits.

Answer: Love's Labour's Lost

"Love's Labour's Lost" was based on European personages of the time, namely Ferdinand, the King of Navarre, and three of his noblemen. The audience's familiarity with these people and the political situation depicted probably ended with the assassination in 1610 of Henry IV of France (who Navarre became in 1589). Believed written in 1594-1595, this was an early play and its sophisticated wordplay, puns, pedantic humour and literary allusions have been interpreted by some as Shakespeare learning his trade. The title has also acquired a couple of apostrophes over the centuries.

Answer: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Written around 1607, "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is classified as a late romance and thought to have been a collaborative work with Shakespeare responsible for the final three acts. The late 14th century poem "Confessio Amantis" by John Gower is the primary source. George Wilkins is regarded as the collaborator who wrote the first two acts, using an edition of the Lawrence Twine 16th century prose version of "Confessio Amantis" (namely "The Pattern of Painful Adventures").

The 1609 printed version was textually corrupt and clumsily written, apparently from memory. A reconstituted version was printed in the 1986 Edition of "The Complete Works" by Oxford University Press, using as a reference the Wilkins 1608 novel version of the play, which was called "The Painful Adventures of Pericles, Prynce of Tyre".

Answer: Titus Andronicus

The full name, "The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus", tells us the nature of the play. It is believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593 likely his first tragedy and probably intended to emulate the popular revenge plays of his contemporaries. It was initially popular; however, its violence saw it fall out of favour until the mid-20th century. In fact there have been plenty of scholars who have questioned whether Shakespeare actually wrote the play. The play also has no basis in historical fact but is an amalgam of things Roman.

Answer: Macbeth

By the time Shakespeare wrote "The Tragedy of Macbeth", it was the reign of King James I. James was sponsor of Shakespeare's acting company, the King's Men (known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during Queen Elizabeth I's reign). Allusions to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in the play convince many scholars that "Macbeth" dates to 1606.

"Macbeth" is seen as celebrating King James' ancestors in the House of Stuart (Banquo, in particular) and uses "Holinshed's Chronicles" (1587) as the main source, combining two stories for the play. The "Chronicles" does not mention the Weird Sisters, Banquo, or Lady Macbeth. These people get their first mention in the 1527 book "Historia Gentis Scotorum" by Hector Boece. Boece used the book to denigrate Macbeth, an 11th century Scottish king, and promote Banquo as an ancestor of the Stuart kings of Scotland. Neither source is historically accurate on the topic of Macbeth.

Answer: Coriolanus

This tragedy is about Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, a legendary Roman general from the 5th century BCE. He got his last name as a result of the siege of Corioli, which is covered in the play. It is not clear whether Coriolanus was a real person nor does the play's portrayal explain his motivation through soliloquies, unlike most of Shakespeare's tragic heroes.

The play was mainly based on material in Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's "Parallel Lives". The character Menenius Agrippa's fable of the belly helps to date the play, as the fable comes from William Cambden's "Remaines" (1605).

The play itself is alluded to in texts from 1610, suggesting the play was written between 1605 and 1610.

Answer: King John

One of Shakespeare's history plays, "The Life and Death of King John" covers the reign of John who was the English king between 1199 and 1216. It is one of two plays written entirely in verse. The composition date is thought to be around 1596. It can be placed between 1587 (when the second, revised edition of "Holinshed's Chronicles" was published) and 1598 (as the play was mentioned in "Palladis Tamia" by Francis Meres).

The water was muddied by an anonymous history play "The Troublesome Reign of King John" (c.1589). Probably written by George Peele, it is generally accepted now that Shakespeare used it as a source for his own version.

Answer: King Lear

Known for its complex poetry and dark tone, "The Tragedy of King Lear" has been proclaimed one of the greatest works of literature written. It is based on accounts of Leir, a legendary king of the Britons. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century "History of the Kings of Britain", Leir reigned around the 8th century BCE. "King Leir", a contemporary precursor to Shakespeare's play, was based on the Monmouth account and written as a comedy with Leir being reinstated and Cordelia succeeding him. This play may also have been a source for Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's version, believed composed sometime between 1603 and 1606, is one in which King Lear and his daughter Cordelia both die. In the 17th century this ending was much criticised before Nahum Tate produced his 1681 adaptation where, amongst other changes, Lear and Cordelia survive. This lasted for nearly 150 years of performances before the deaths were reinstated. The modern version of the play is a composite of three early 17th century Shakespeare versions.