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The story told in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is often thought to be derived from the story of __________.
The general consensus among scholars reflects that Shakespeare derived his story and main characters for Romeo and Juliet from Ovid's story of Pyramus and Thisbe. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe depicts two tragic lovers who are separated by their families, who do not approve of their marriage. They communicate their love through a cement wall and plan to meet under a tree outside to confess their love. However, when Thisbe comes out first, she mistakes the blood of a lion for Pyramus' blood and, believing he had been killed, kills herself.
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But full of fire and greedy hardiment,
The youthfull knight could not for ought be staide,
But forth unto the darksome hole he went,
And looked in: his glistring armor made
A litle glooming light, much like a shade,
By which he saw the ugly monster plaine,
Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide,
But th'other halfe did womans shape retaine,
Most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine.
The author of the poem was a contemporary of __________.
The excerpt is taken from a poem by Edmund Spenser, who lived during the second half of the sixteenth century. Though he was a contemporary of Early Modern poets like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Spenser utilized deliberately archaic language that may seem like something that one would be more likely to find in Chaucer's poetry.
Passage adapted from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, I.xiv.1-9 (1590)
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Who is the author of this play?
This is the famous epilogue from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1623).
Christopher Marlowe wrote Dr. Faustus (1604). Thomas Kyd wrote The Spanish Tragedie (1587). Ben Jonson wrote Every Man in his Humour (1598). Sir Walter Raleigh wrote "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" (approx. 1598).
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
When was this play first published?
The Tempest was first published in 1623 in the First Folio. Many scholars believe that it is the last play Shakespeare wrote. The play was probably first performed in 1611, but was not published until 1623.
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
What genre does this play belong to?
While The Tempest (1623) isn’t strictly considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, it also doesn’t fit into an easy category like tragedy, comedy, or history. While the play was originally billed as a comedy in Elizabethan times, it has since been recategorized by most scholars.
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Which Caribbean writer wrote a 1969 post-colonial play based on this work?
The work in question is Martinican writer Aimé Cesairé’s Une Tempête (A Tempest) (1969). This play uses Shakespeare’s original characters but rewrites the work in order to investigate and deconstruct race, power, and colonialism.
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Which of the following characters is not from this play?
Iago is a character in Shakespeare’s Othello (1622), not from The Tempest (1623).
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Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Which of the following dystopian novels takes its title from a line in this play?
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932)takes its title from lines that Miranda speaks in Act V scene 1 of the play: “Oh, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in ’t!”
Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (1961), Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962), George Orwell's 1984 (1949), and William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) were all used as alternate answer choices.
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
Who is the author of this play?
This is a monologue from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1623). Even if you weren’t familiar with the monologue itself, you could have recognized Banquo as one of the central characters in the play.
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
What genre does this play belong to?
This play is a tragedy; in fact, the full title is The Tragedy of Macbeth (1623). In the play, Macbeth and his wife are ruined by their fatal flaws of weakness and ambition, a classic trope in tragedy.
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
What is the setting of this play?
Macbeth (1623)is set in Scotland. (Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1604)is set in Denmark, Antony and Cleopatra (1623)is set in ancient Egypt, Romeo and Juliet (1597)is set in Verona, and Othello (1622) is set partly in Venice.)
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
What historical document served as a basis for this play’s storyline?
Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) contains an account of real Scottish historical figures called Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan. The story of Shakespeare’s play differs considerably from Holinshed’s story, though.
Herodotus' The Histories (440 BCE), The Domesday Book (1086), Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), and The Magna Carta (1215) were all used as alternate answer choices.
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
In what decade was this play written?
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. The play was first performed in 1611, and first published in 1623.
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
Which of the following is not a character in this work?
Cordelia is a central character in Shakespeare’s King Lear (1608), not Macbeth (1623).
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O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
Who is the author of this play?
This is Mercutio’s famous monologue in William Shakespeare’s 1597 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
This play is based in part on a work by which English author?
Although the story of Romeo and Juliet can be traced through multiple decades and countries, the direct inspiration for Shakespeare’s version was Arthur Brooke’s long, poorly received narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
In what modern-day country is this play set?
Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy. The setting plays a prominent role, and is frequently mentioned in the play.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
Which of the following other plays by Shakespeare is set in the same city as this one?
In addition to Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew is also set in Verona, Italy. The Tempest (1611) is set on an unnamed Mediterranean Island. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1605) is set in ancient Athens (and surrounding wilderness). Othello (1604) is set in Venice. Twelfth Night(1602) is set in Illyria.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
Which of the following films or plays is not based on this play?
Only Tony Kushner’s 1993 play Angels in America does not follow the storyline of Romeo and Juliet (1597). All the other works adopt the tragic story of two lovers whose families are sworn enemies, employing different character names and settings to investigate many of the same themes.
The similarities and resonances between Shakespeare in Love (1998) do not extend far past the use of Shakespeare's name in the title.
Arthur Laurents's West Side Story(1961), Tracy Letts' Killer Joe (1993), and Mac Wellman's Bad Infinity (1983) were all used as alternative answer choices.
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KING: … Hieronimo, it greatly pleaseth us
That in our victory thou have a share
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
… Bring hither the young prince of Portingale!
The rest march on, but, ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten,
That they may know our largesse welcomes them.
Exeunt all \[the army\] but BALTHAZAR,
LORENZO, and HORATIO.
Who is the author of this play?
This is Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again. The presence of several main characters (Hieronimo, Lorenzo, Balthazar, and Horatio) in these lines is the main clue to determining the identity of the work.
Passage adapted from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
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