My True Love Guild To Me - 7th Day Quiz

Answer: Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson's poem "To the memory of my beloved, the author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and what he hath left us" is one of several tributes which form a preface to the First Folio edition of the plays, published by John Heminge and Henry Condell in 1623. Jonson's poem also includes the often-quoted observations that Shakespeare had "small Latin and less Greek" and that "he was not of an age, but for all time."

Answer: 1875

Webb, a 27-year-old merchant naval captain from Shropshire, attempted to swim the Channel on August 12 1875, but was forced to give up because of strong winds and high seas. Less than two weeks later he successfully crossed from Dover to Calais on August 24/25 1875, using the breaststroke and taking 21 hours 45 minutes.

Webb already had a reputation as a daredevil, and he met his death eight years later trying to swim across the Niagara River below the falls. He was drowned in the whirlpool and buried in Oakwood Cemetery on the American side of the border.

Answer: Jaques in "As You Like It"

Not surprisingly for a man of the theatre, Shakespeare frequently uses the image of life as a play. Antonio in "The Merchant of Venice" calls the world "a stage where every man must play a part", and the doomed Macbeth sees life as "a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage."

Jaques goes into the metaphor in more detail, likening the successive stages of life to the acts of the play in which we must perform a series of parts. The seven ages are those of the infant, the schoolboy, the lover, the soldier, the justice, the "lean and slippered pantaloon," and finally second childhood "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

The Globe Theatre, at which many of Shakespeare's later plays were performed, is said to have sported the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem", the Latin equivalent of the opening words of Jaques' speech.

Answer: immediately before they die

Unlike the trumpeter swans of North America, European swans are mute. We are unwilling to accept that such a beautiful creature doesn't have a voice to match; and so the belief has evolved that the swan sings one song, of surpassing loveliness, when it is at the point of death.

The use of "swan-song" for an author's last work or a performer's last appearance strikes me as inappropriate, since it is usually the last of many and not a long-awaited sole example; but the usage is established.

Answer: The Dardanelles

Sestos and Abydos faced each other across the narrowest point in the Dardanelles. The strait is only about a mile wide, but the strong cross-current makes the swim a physically demanding task. Many visitors to the area have felt impelled to emulate Leander's feat, notably Lord Byron in 1810. Nowadays there is an annual race across the strait on August 30th.

Answer: Palatine

"Can Queen Victoria eat cold apple pie" is a widely used mnemonic for the names of the hills. The names still survive in modern Rome, where the Quirinal Palace (Palazzo del Quirinale) is the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic.

Answer: Western Australia

Originally called the Swarte Swaene-Revier by the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, the river takes its name from the black swans which are native to the area. Perth, the state capital, and its port of Fremantle, stand on the estuary.

Answer: water polo

Weissmuller was a member of the US water polo team which finished third in the 1924 Games. His swimming medals were won in the 100 metres freestyle and the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relays in 1924 and 1928, and in the 400 metres freestyle in 1924.

Answer: Frankincense

The brothers were given Biblical names in alphabetical order: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frankincense, Gideon. According to Caleb, their mother couldn't find any Biblical personal names beginning with F, and so she called the sixth son Frankincense "because he smelled so sweet."

Answer: Hans Christian Andersen

Other well-known tales by Andersen include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Match Girl", "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", "Thumbelina" and "The Tinder Box." Those of us who were children in the 1950s will probably remember some of them as they were told in song by Danny Kaye in the RKO movie, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, though the film bears little resemblance to Andersen's life.