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Quiz about Will the Real Shakespeare Please Stand Up
Quiz about Will the Real Shakespeare Please Stand Up

Will the Real Shakespeare Please Stand Up Quiz


Taking this Shakespeare quiz will give you insights enabling you to read all of the plays more effectively.

A multiple-choice quiz by WilliamCamden. Estimated time: 3 mins.
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Time
3 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
402,894
Updated
Sep 04 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
236
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. The 1956 science fiction movie 'Forbidden Planet' describes a group of people struggling to survive on an isolated planet. It has been said to parallel the plot of which Shakespearian play? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Which title of a Ray Bradbury novel comes from 'Macbeth'? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. According to Shakespeare scholars, which of these is NOT in Macbeth? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Christopher Marlowe's extracurricular activities at Cambridge University put him in a class with which of these fictional characters? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Shakespeare's plays have been attributed to all of the following except one. Who has not been proposed to be the 'real Shakespeare'? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. According to the plays of George Chapman, every Elizabethan man had _____. Which of these completes the previous sentence correctly? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. A striking allusion to Hamlet plays a central role in which twentieth century poem? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. By the preponderance of scholarly evaluations, which is considered to be the greatest Shakespearean play? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. From the Sermon on the Mount, Shakespeare most likely took inspiration for the title of which play? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. What is the name of the hero of 'Much Ado About Nothing'? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The 1956 science fiction movie 'Forbidden Planet' describes a group of people struggling to survive on an isolated planet. It has been said to parallel the plot of which Shakespearian play?

Answer: The Tempest

In 'Forbidden Planet', the parallel to Caliban is the uncontrollable "Id" of Dr. Morbius, a scientist marooned with his daughter on Altair IV. To Morbius' daughter, the men of the rescue ship (especially the captain) represent a "brave new world". Ariel, Prospero's agent, becomes Robbie the Robot.

While Prospero foresees the end of the "great globe", Morbius himself brings on the destruction of his planet.
2. Which title of a Ray Bradbury novel comes from 'Macbeth'?

Answer: Something Wicked This Way Comes

'Something Wicked This Way Comes' combines elements of fantasy and horror--a perfect match for Macbeth. Both works deal with the struggle between good and evil inclinations in each individual.
3. According to Shakespeare scholars, which of these is NOT in Macbeth?

Answer: witches

The three witches in Macbeth are the Weird Sisters or Fates. The Weird Sisters are more mysterious than witches. The Weird Sisters are more like the Harpies in Greek mythology than the witches in Elizabethan Society. (Some scholars suggest that Lady Macbeth is a fourth Sister.) Nowhere in the play are the Weird Sisters referred to by Macbeth or Malcolm as "witches" - always as Weird Sisters. Elizabethan witches were usually portrayed as harmless old women whom we might mistake for bag ladies. They could curse, but not predict the future.

In Holinshed's Chronicles, Shakespeare's source, the women are unambiguously referred to as "Weird Sisters." They are the "spirits that know all mortal consequences."
4. Christopher Marlowe's extracurricular activities at Cambridge University put him in a class with which of these fictional characters?

Answer: James Bond

Like Bond, Marlowe served on Her Majesty's Secret Service. According to the Privy Council, Marlowe "had done Her Majestie good service," most likely as a secret agent abroad. At age 29, Marlowe was murdered in a tavern. His murderer may have
worked for the same secret service that valued him highly only a few years earlier.

Qfwfq is the main character in Italo Calvino's 'Comicomics', Pierre Menard is the author of Borges' fictional Quixote, and Zazie is the outrageous brat in Raymond Queneau's novel, 'Zazie Dans Le Metro'.
5. Shakespeare's plays have been attributed to all of the following except one. Who has not been proposed to be the 'real Shakespeare'?

Answer: William Camden

William Camden taught Ben Jonson and may well have worked with Shakespeare, but Camden has never been suggested as the author of Shakespeare's plays. Ironically, Camden, more than the rest cited, had the intellectual background to author the plays. There is absolutely no evidence, however, that Camden did!
6. According to the plays of George Chapman, every Elizabethan man had _____. Which of these completes the previous sentence correctly?

Answer: a horn growing out of his forehead

In 'All Fools', George Chapman presents a long, poetic dissertation on the omnipresent horn. On one level, the horn signifies a husband whose wife has been unfaithful, and, on another level, the degree to which we are all gullible. In our society, of course, the husband is more often considered the unfaithful one, especially in our popular culture; and the horn symbolism has disappeared.

The Elizabethan husband, by contrast, put his penis on his head (or had his wife do it for him). If you answered "a touch of melancholy" or any of the other incorrect responses, you must be hitting yourself on the forehead and saying, "Schmuck!" how could I have missed this one?
7. A striking allusion to Hamlet plays a central role in which twentieth century poem?

Answer: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

"I was not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be." T.S. Eliot's Prufrock identifies himself with Polonius to reinforce Prufrock's description of himself as mock-heroic.
8. By the preponderance of scholarly evaluations, which is considered to be the greatest Shakespearean play?

Answer: King Lear

'King Lear' depicts the theme of human cruelty in a forthright, even painful manner. The play deals with questions about the existence and power of God, parent-child relationships, governing, and even the theater itself. Many of Shakespeare's major themes - banishment, appearance/reality, recognition, and regeneration - are here, together with the dramatic icons: storms, the stage, torture, and the invocation to chaos.

There is no evidence, however, that the play was greeted with special enthusiasm by Shakespeare's audience or his contemporaries.
9. From the Sermon on the Mount, Shakespeare most likely took inspiration for the title of which play?

Answer: Measure for Measure

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you". --Matthew 7:1-2 (KJV)

The play is classed as a comedy, but has significant dramatic tension that verges on tragedy along the way. Angelo's abuse of power when placed in control of Vienna during the duke's ostensible absence gets its comeuppance.
10. What is the name of the hero of 'Much Ado About Nothing'?

Answer: Hero

'Much Ado About Nothing' is about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero. Benedick and Beatrice are engaged in a "merry war"; they both proclaim their scorn for love, marriage, and each other. In contrast, Claudio and Hero are young people who are rendered practically speechless by their love for one another. By means of "noting" (which is sounded by Shakespeare's audience when reading "nothing", and which is gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar.

However, Dogberry, a Constable who is a master of malapropisms, discovers the evil trickery of the villain, the bastard (illegitimate and evil) Don John.

Some scholars name Dogberry - however bumbling, incoherent, and comical - the true hero of 'Much Ado About Noting'.
Source: Author WilliamCamden

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