Through Shakespeare's Eyes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Newt

This famous incantation is from one of the Bard's most famous plays, 'Macbeth'.
According to theatre legend, the play was cursed by witches because it revealed their nefarious secrets and now, instead of mentioning the play by name, thespians refer to it as 'The Scottish Play' so as not to bring disaster to the show.

Answer: Green-eyed monster

Meaning 'jealousy personified', the phrase 'Green-eyed monster' possibly pre-dates Shakespeare, but he was the first to use it in a literary sense. The most memorable use of the phrase appears in 'Othello', with the villain, Iago, ironically and hypocritically pointing out Othello's flaws:

"Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock."

Answer: Blind

Shakespeare took quite a shine to this phrase, also using it in 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' and 'Henry V'. In 'The Merchant of Venice', Jessica (in disguise), is reluctant to be seen in boys' clothes and utters these words to hide her embarrassment:

"But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy."

Please note, this famous phrase is not to be confused with another wise, though not quite so subtle, writer, J.Mason Brewer who said:

'I don't make love by the garden gate,
For love is blind, but the neighbors ain't.'

Quite!

Answer: The apple of my eye

This phrase also appears several times in the Bible, but its first usage in Modern English was in Sir Walter Scott's 'Old Mortality', written in 1816.

In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Oberon, the fairy king, uses the juice of a flower to cast a magic spell on his stubborn wife, Titania. This makes her fall in love with the first creature she sees - unfortunately, it's Bottom, an ass!

"Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid's archery,
Sink in apple of his eye".

Answer: Vile jelly

'Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?'

The character development of the Earl of Gloucester is shaped through a series of metaphors - his physical blindness mirroring the emotional blindfold he wears in the presence of his sons and during important events in his life. It's only when he cannot physically see that he realises what truly matters to him.

Answer: Love's Labour's Lost

The line goes on to say that love 'adds a precious seeing to the eye' and that 'a lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind.'

Incidently, 'Love's Labour's Lost' is the only Shakespearean play to use the word 'honorificabilitudinitatibus', meaning the state of being able to achieve honours.

Answer: In the twinkling of an eye

Popularised by, rather than coined by, Shakespeare, this is a Biblical reference found in Corinthians:

The Bard used this phrase in his delightful comedy, 'The Merchant of Venice' with his character, Launcelot Gobbo, holding an internal monologue about whether or not he should run away from his master, Shylock. Gobbo finally concludes that he will indeed "take leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye."

Answer: Hazel

In the same play, Romeo compares Juliet favourably to the stars, claiming that her eyes alone shine so bright that they will convince the birds to sing at night as if it were day.

Answer: Mind

In this, another of Shakespeare's comedies, poor, lovesick Helena has been abandoned by the man of her dreams, Demetrius, because he loves the more attractive Hermia. Helena gets her man in the end, but only after much mayhem and, of course, a goodly dose of magic!

Answer: Onions

"Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon."

In this play, Lord Lafeu, a feisty yet loyal nobleman, shows his softer side when, at the dénouement, he cries with joy; it seems that the protagonists - Helena and Bertram - have been reunited in love and all has, indeed, ended well... or has it?

This pungent vegetable appears at least five times in Shakespeare's works, and all but one reference deals with its capacity to bring one to tears.