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HMS Pinafore Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
HMS Pinafore Quizzes, Trivia

H.M.S. Pinafore Trivia

H.M.S. Pinafore Trivia Quizzes

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If Little Buttercup hadn't mixed up those two babes at birth, Gilbert and Sullivan wouldn't have had a storyline for this, one of their most popular operettas.
2 H.M.S. Pinafore quizzes and 20 H.M.S. Pinafore trivia questions.
1.
  Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A not too difficult quiz about Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore".
Average, 10 Qns, tigergirl04, May 08 16
Average
tigergirl04
490 plays
2.
  "Pinafore" in Translation   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You'll need to get out your Spithead-English / English-Spithead Dictionary to figure out just what is going on in Gilbert and Sullivan's famous light opera "HMS Pinafore".
Tough, 10 Qns, sidnobls, May 08 16
Tough
sidnobls
227 plays
trivia question Quick Question
Although most of the operettas have two acts, there are a few exceptions to the rule. How many operettas have a different number of acts?

From Quiz "A General Gilbert and Sullivan Quiz"




Related Topics
  Gilbert and Sullivan [Humanities] (15 quizzes)


H.M.S. Pinafore Trivia Questions

1. What is the other name of "H.M.S. Pinafore"?

From Quiz
Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: The lass that loved a sailor

They are all names for Gilbert and Sullivan operas. "The merryman and his maid" is the other name for "The Yeomen of the Guard", "The slave of duty" is "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The statutory duel" is "The Grand Duke"

2. The crew of Pinafore are populated by, among others, Dick Deadeye, Bill Bobstay (the Boatswain), and Bob Becket (the Carpenter's Mate). What is significant about these names?

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: they are parts of ships' rigging

A "bobstay" is a line that supports the bowsprit of a ship. A "deadeye" is a grooved and riven block of wood that is used to cinch - in pulley type fashion - a line attached to a shroud or sail. In the world before Velcro, a "becket" was a short piece of rope with a toggle at one end and a loop at the other that was primarily used to secure a coil of line.

3. Ralph Rackstraw states "it's a strange anomaly, that the daughter of a man who hails from the quarter-deck may not love another who lays out on the fore-yard arm." Considering Pinafore's many decks, which would she not have?

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: sweep deck

A sweep deck is a low deck astern of the vessel for launching sonar or mine sweeping equipment - not extant during Captain Corcoran's command. The berth deck is the narrow 'tween' decks that accommodates the hammocks of the crew. The poop deck is the roof of the cabin in the stern abaft the quarterdeck and the orlop deck is the deepest level within a ship where cable or lines are coiled in "overlapping" fashion.

4. Sir Joseph Porter comes calling on the Captain in the hopes of courting Corcoran's daughter Josephine. What impressive credentials does he bring to the courtship?

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: K.C.B.

Sir Joseph was a Knight Commander of the The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. The Order of the Bath is a coveted honor for senior serving military officers and career civil servants in Britain. KBE is "Knight Commander of the British Empire" which was not instituted until 1918 by King George V. K.G. stands for "Knights of the Order of the Garter". K.G.B. is the acronym for the Soviet Russian secret police.

5. What is Buttercup's current occupation?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: Bumboat woman

Early in the second act Buttercup tells us that she is a bumboat woman. A saleswoman who travels from ship to ship selling her wares to the sailors.

6. What polite phrase does Sir Joseph introduce to the Captain and his crew?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: If you please

At the start Captain Corcoran can't quite cope with Sir Joseph and the sailors telling him to say this but he gets to return the favour at the end when things change.

7. Ralph, while wooing Josephine, claims to be in the "Cimmerian darkness" of despair. Where is dark Cimmeria?

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: in Homer's 'Odyssey'

In Homer's 'Odyssey', the Cimmerians lived where the sun never shines. Ralph was well read and articulate for a foremast hand - "I am poor in the essence of happiness, lady -- rich only in never-ending unrest. In me there meet a combination of antithetical elements which are at eternal war with one another. Driven hither by objective influences -- thither by subjective emotions -- wafted one moment into blazing day, by mocking hope - - plunged the next into the Cimmerian darkness of tangible despair, I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms." Then he adds, "I hope I make myself clear, lady?" Josephine responds "Perfectly", and then says aside to the audience "His simple eloquence goes to my heart."

8. What do we discover, which causes the dramatic change at the end of the opera?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: Ralph and Captain Corcoran were swapped as children

Buttercup confesses that she looked after Ralph and Captain Corcoran as young children and accidentally mixed them up. The pair swap roles back to what they should have been, allowing Ralph and Josephine to marry as they had always wanted.

9. Though Sir Joseph found it 'not easy to express' his pain and distress, from what may you learn his 'amazement and surprise'?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: The expression of his eyes

"My pain and my distress, I find it not easy to express. My amazement my surprise you may learn from the expression of my eyes!"(Sir Joseph, H.M.S. Pinafore) Sir Joseph is horrified at the bad language used by Captain Corcoran and that Ralph, a common sailor, is in love with Josephine, the captain's daughter.

10. While "carefully on tiptoe stealing", the crew are filled with apprehension by the sound of the "cat". In particular, the crew fear that the cat-o'-____-tails is about.

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: nine

The crew sing : "Carefully on tiptoe stealing, breathing gently as we may, every step with caution feeling, we will softly steal away." They are much alarmed by the stamping of Captain Corcoran's boot: "Goodness me-- why, what was that?" To which Dick Deadeye knowingly warns: "Silent be, it was the cat!" The cat-o'-nine-tails was a whip with nine knotted lashes used frequently for discipline aboard ships of the Royal Navy.

11. Captain Corcoran gets in big trouble for swearing the 'big big D'. Who else uses this word but gets away with it?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: Dick Dead-Eye

Dick Dead-Eye chorused the captain's words in his enjoyment at getting Ralph and Josephine caught. Ralph and the Boatswain are very polite throughout the opera and Cousin Hebe is Sir Joseph's cousin who is also horrified by the swearing. "Don't go near him! Don't go near him! He is swearing! He is swearing!"

12. In "Things are Seldom What They Seem", Buttercup sings, "turbot is ambitious brill". To what is she making reference?

From Quiz "Pinafore" in Translation

Answer: fish in the North Sea

"Drops the wind and stops the mill; Turbot is ambitious brill; Gild the farthing if you will, yet it is a farthing still." Turbot is a flatfish similar to the flounder that yields much sought-after tasty, light and flaky fillets which, because of their size, can be prepared in a variety of ways. Brill is also a flatfish, but as much as 1/4 or 1/5 the size of a turbot and not as sweet to the taste.

13. "Goodness me -Why what was that?"

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: Silent be- it was the cat

When Dick Dead-Eye tells the crew that the noise was just the cat, he spoke almost the truth. He was refering to the cat-o-nine-tails carried by the hidden Captain Corcoran. This nine straped whip would have been a terrible punishment for wayward sailors.

14. What are Sir Joseph's credentials?

From Quiz Gilbert & Sullivan's: "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Answer: K.C.B.

Sir Joseph Porter K.C.B. is the Knight Commander of the Bath, A Knighthood founded by George the first in 1725. K.G. is Knight of the Garter, founded by Edward the third in 1350. The other two I made up.

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