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Cymbeline Quiz for Experts | Shakespeare

This is a quiz about a beautiful, but sometimes neglected, Shakespeare play.

A multiple-choice quiz by londoneye98. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
londoneye98

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
340,234

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
20

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
12 / 20

Plays
227

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 20

1. What is the generally-accepted date for the composition of William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline"? Hint

1660-61

1510-01

1610-11

1560-61

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Question 2 of 20

2. What sources did Shakespeare use for the plot of "Cymbeline"? Hint

only Boccaccio

both Boccaccio and Holinshed

only Holinshed

he seems to have invented the whole plot himself

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Question 3 of 20

3. How was the play - surprisingly in view of its happy ending - listed upon its first publication, in the posthumous "First Folio" of Shakespeare's collected works in 1623? Hint

as a tragedy

as a history play

as a comedy

as a romance

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Question 4 of 20

4. At the time of the play's action, which Caesar is ruling the Roman Empire? Hint

Tiberius

Julius

Octavius

Claudius

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Question 5 of 20

5. Who is Cymbeline? Hint

the British King

the principal villain of the play

the principal hero of the play

a Roman god

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Question 6 of 20

6. Why is the hero of the play called Posthumus? Hint

simply because his father died before he was born

for neither of these reasons

simply because his mother died giving birth to him

for both of these reasons

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Question 7 of 20

7. What is the heroine's name in "Cymbeline"? Hint

Marina

Perdita

Miranda

Imogen

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Question 8 of 20

8. Why does Iachimo leave his Italian home to visit Britain? Hint

he wants to join Cymbeline's army

he has been plotting with the British Queen

he wants to kidnap Imogen

he wants to win a bet with Posthumus

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Question 9 of 20

9. How does Iachimo secrete himself into Imogen's bed-chamber? Hint

disguised as a maidservant

hiding in a trunk

down the chimney

through a trapdoor

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Question 10 of 20

10. What colour are Imogen's eyes? Hint

dark brown

blue

green

hazel

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Question 11 of 20

11. Which one of these things does Iachimo *not* mention during his soliloquy in the sleeping Imogen's bedchamber? Hint

Imogen has been reading about the rape of Philomel

Imogen is wearing a bracelet

there is a sculpture of a pair of Cupids in the room

Imogen has a mole on her left breast

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Question 12 of 20

12. To whom does Cloten say of Imogen: "If you can penetrate her with your fingering, so; we'll try with tongue too: if none will do, let her remain"? Hint

the Queen

his soldiers

his musicians

Pisanio

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Question 13 of 20

13. How does the song begin which is sung below Imogen's window? Hint

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

Come away, come away, death

Hark! hark! the lark at Heaven's gate sings

It was a lover and his lass

14. Which character says to the Roman envoy who has come to Britain to demand tribute money, "We will nothing pay for wearing our own noses; ... if Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light"? Hint

Cymbeline

the Queen

Posthumus

Cloten

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Question 15 of 20

15. To which Welsh port does Posthumus sail on his way back from Italy to Cymbeline's court? Hint

Criccieth

Milford Haven

Fishguard

Tenby

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Question 16 of 20

16. Who are Polydore and Cadwal? Hint

a pair of evil Welsh bandits

Belarius's natural children

the long-lost sons of Cymbeline

disreputable friends of Cloten

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Question 17 of 20

17. Which character in the play disguises himself/herself as the youth "Fidele"? Hint

Pisanio

the Queen

the Doctor

Imogen

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Question 18 of 20

18. Which episode in "Cymbeline" has traditionally been thought by critics not to be Shakespeare's own work? Hint

the song "Fear no more the heat o' th' sun"

Posthumus's dream-vision in gaol

Posthumus's meeting with the gaoler

the extremely complicated happy ending

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Question 19 of 20

19. Which one of these lines of Shakespeare's does *not* appear in "Cymbeline"? Hint

O, the charity of a penny cord!

Hang there like fruit, my soul, till the tree die!

O, for a Muse of fire!

O, for a horse with wings!

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Question 20 of 20

20. Which Shakespearean commentator remarked of "Cymbeline" that he would not "waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation"? Hint

Samuel Johnson

Edward Dowden

S.T.Coleridge

Dr F.R.Leavis

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What is the generally-accepted date for the composition of William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline"?

Answer: 1610-11

The well-known astrologer of the period, Simon Forman, records having attended a performance of the new play in 1611. Unfortunately for scholars, he gives no details, not even mentioning the name of the theatre in which the performance occurred (it was probably either the Globe or the new indoor Blackfriars Theatre).

2. What sources did Shakespeare use for the plot of "Cymbeline"?

Answer: both Boccaccio and Holinshed

He took some historical background from Holinshed's "Chronicles", and part of the plot from Boccaccio's "Decameron". Other parts of the plot were apparently taken from an anonymous play of 1589.

3. How was the play - surprisingly in view of its happy ending - listed upon its first publication, in the posthumous "First Folio" of Shakespeare's collected works in 1623?

Answer: as a tragedy

Presumably the editors - Shakespeare's old friends Heminge and Condell - had either never seen "Cymbeline" performed, or had never stayed to the end. The play is a glorious mixture of comedy, history, tragedy and romance, with a blissfully happy ending. It could best be described, perhaps, as a dramatised fairy-tale.

4. At the time of the play's action, which Caesar is ruling the Roman Empire?

Answer: Octavius

The play is set in the uneasy period between the two Roman invasions of Britain, when the Celtic chiefs were supposed to be sending tribute money to Rome in order to keep the Caesars quiet.

5. Who is Cymbeline?

Answer: the British King

Truculent and ineffective in his personal life, Cymbeline is neither a hero nor a villain, but rather a kind of flawed figurehead: a fairy-tale king.

6. Why is the hero of the play called Posthumus?

Answer: for both of these reasons

"Posthumus" seems a slightly unlikely name for a hero, but his second name -"Leonatus" - makes him sound more heroic.

7. What is the heroine's name in "Cymbeline"?

Answer: Imogen

Imogen is one of Shakespeare's most admirable women characters - honest, loyal, brave, resilient, practical, adventurous, lyrical - and beautiful, too. She has attracted the attention of some of Britain's leading actresses over the centuries: perhaps the most celebrated Imogen of all was Ellen Terry in London in the 1890s, of whom it was memorably recalled by the playwright and critic Harley Granville-Barker that her voice "seemed to fill the Lyceum Theatre with dancing sunbeams".

8. Why does Iachimo leave his Italian home to visit Britain?

Answer: he wants to win a bet with Posthumus

Iachimo wants to prove to Posthumus, by fair means or foul, that his wife has been unfaithful to him.

9. How does Iachimo secrete himself into Imogen's bed-chamber?

Answer: hiding in a trunk

When, with Imogen asleep in her bed, Iachimo slowly levers open the lid of the trunk and looks around him, it can be a stunning "coup de theatre". I saw the late Emrys James do it brilliantly at Stratford-upon-Avon in the 1970s.

10. What colour are Imogen's eyes?

Answer: blue

"White and azure lac'd with Heaven's own tinct", rhapsodises Iachimo. A wee problem, perhaps, for aspiring Shakespearean actresses with brown eyes.

11. Which one of these things does Iachimo *not* mention during his soliloquy in the sleeping Imogen's bedchamber?

Answer: there is a sculpture of a pair of Cupids in the room

He saves this bit of extra information for later, when he is describing the bedchamber to the shocked Posthumus.

12. To whom does Cloten say of Imogen: "If you can penetrate her with your fingering, so; we'll try with tongue too: if none will do, let her remain"?

Answer: his musicians

Cloten's crude sexual innuendo only emphasises what a hopeless suitor he is.

13. How does the song begin which is sung below Imogen's window?

Answer: Hark! hark! the lark at Heaven's gate sings

The original musical setting for this song, by Robert Johnson, has survived, and it is a delight. (The words were set to music again 200-odd years later by Franz Schubert. Lucky song.)

Answer: Cloten

Cloten's quite impressive bravado here helps to make him a slightly more rounded character. His days are numbered, though: he is presently to be beheaded outside Belarius's cave in Wales while wearing Posthumus's clothes, and to be mistaken for the corpse of Posthumus by the distraught Imogen.

15. To which Welsh port does Posthumus sail on his way back from Italy to Cymbeline's court?

Answer: Milford Haven

I read somewhere that Milford Haven claims to have the second deepest harbour in Europe, but if Shakespeare had heard about this bit of folklore, he decided not to use it.

16. Who are Polydore and Cadwal?

Answer: the long-lost sons of Cymbeline

They think they are Belarius's sons, but they are really royal princes all the time (Guiderius and Arviragus are their real names).

17. Which character in the play disguises himself/herself as the youth "Fidele"?

Answer: Imogen

It reminds us once again of the versatility of those Shakespearean boy-actors who played the women's parts. A boy playing a girl playing a boy...

Polydore and Cadwal, who have fallen in love with the "youth" who is really - unbeknownst to them all - their long-lost sister, cannot contain their grief when "he" is found apparently dead. The eighteenth-century poet William Collins, inspired by Shakespeare's play, wrote a lyrical dirge lamenting the supposed death of "Fidele", which captures the fairy-tale elegiac note quite well.

18. Which episode in "Cymbeline" has traditionally been thought by critics not to be Shakespeare's own work?

Answer: Posthumus's dream-vision in gaol

The dream-vision of his dead relations that Posthumus experiences in prison is written in a strange kind of doggerel completely unlike Shakespeare's usual late style. The authenticity of the other three options given above has never been questioned.

19. Which one of these lines of Shakespeare's does *not* appear in "Cymbeline"?

Answer: O, for a Muse of fire!

These are the opening words of "Henry V".

20. Which Shakespearean commentator remarked of "Cymbeline" that he would not "waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection, and too gross for aggravation"?

Answer: Samuel Johnson

Various influential critics have been more positive than Johnson: Leavis, for example, believes that "Cymbeline" "contains a great variety of life and interest...out of the interplay of contrasting themes and modes we have an effect as...of an odd and distinctive music".

Source: Author londoneye98

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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