Shakespeare MCQ Quiz
Question 1: Who convinces Isabella to advocate for her brother?
(A) Claudio himself
(B) The Duke, in disguise
(C) Lucio
(D) The Provost
Question 2: What is the rhyme scheme of Shakespearean Sonnet?
(A) abab cd efef gg
(B) abab cdcd efef gg
(C) ab cdcd efef gg
(D) abab cdcd efef
Question 3: __________ is a history play by William Shakespeare.
(A) King Lear
(B) A Midsummer Night Dream
(C) Measure for Measure
(D) Henry IV, Part 1
Question 4: Who said that Shakespeare in his comedies has only heroines and no heroes?
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) John Ruskin
(C) Thomas Carlyle
(D) Four
Question 5: Eliot criticizes __________ for his fixation on Hamlet.
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Eliot
(D) Dryden
Question 6: Richard II goes to fight a war in ____________.
(A) Ireland
(B) Scotland
(C) Wales
(D) Finland
Question 7: Eliot first popularised the term _________.
(A) Objective Corelative
(B) Expressionism
(C) Absurdism
(D) Objectivism
Question 8: Bolingbroke is crownwd as _________.
(A) Henry II
(B) Henry IV
(C) Henry V
(D) Richard III
Question 9: Where does York tell the men to meet him as he leaves?
(A) Berkeley castle
(B) Buckingham Palace
(C) Windsor Castle
(D) Ireland
Question 10: The primary problem of __________ is the play itself.
(A) Macbeth
(B) Hamlet
(C) Julius Ceasar
(D) King Lear
Question 11: Which of the following traits do Harry and Hotspur have in common?
(A) Age
(B) Love for Kate
(C) Quick temper
(D) Sexual promiscuity
Question 12: _________ is the son of John of Gaunt.
(A) Henry II
(B) Bolingbroke
(C) Mowbray
(D) Edmund
Question 13: _____________ is the first play of William Shakespeare’s “second tetralogy,” a group of four history plays including Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V.
(A) Richard I
(B) Richard II
(C) Richard III
(D) Richard IV
Question 14: At what castle was Richard imprisoned until he died?
(A) Flint Castle
(B) Pomfret Castle
(C) Barkloughly Castle
(D) Bristol Castle
Question 15: Where did Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire die?
(A) Oxford
(B) Esssex
(C) Berkeley
(D) Bristol
Question 16: Which man is put in charge of the country whilst Richard goes to Ireland?
(A) Earl of Wiltshire
(B) York
(C) Northumberland
(D) Aumerle
Question 17: By what method did Richard suspect they would first try to murder him?
(A) by smothering him in his sleep
(B) by starvation
(C) by poison
(D) by torture
Question 18: How many sonnets were written by Shakespeare?
(A) 140
(B) 164
(C) 154
(D) 145
Question 19: In which of the following decades were Shakespeare sonnets written?
(A) 1580s
(B) 1590s
(C) 1570s
(D) 1610s
Question 20: In which year Shakespeare sonnets were published first?
(A) 1600
(B) 1609
(C) 1619
(D) 1630
Question 21: Which of the following authors did Shakespeare sonnets influence?
(A) John Dryden
(B) John Keats
(C) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(D) All the above
Question 22: Which Latin concept explored by Shakespeare in his sonnets refers to a state which lies between eternity and the temporal existence of material beings?
(A) Aelus
(B) Aegae
(C) Aevum
(D) Aedivum
Question 23: The beginning of which quatrain normally marks the ‘volta’ in Shakespeare sonnets?
(A) The fourth
(B) The second
(C) The first
(D) The third
Question 24: St. Augustine and Shakespeare are considered forerunners of a group of philosophers which included Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. What is the name of this group?
(A) Essentialists
(B) Existentialists
(C) Fatalists
(D) Materialists
Question 25: Who is the addressee of part two in Shakespeare’s sonnet?
(A) A fair lady
(B) A rival poet
(C) A dark lady
(D) A fair youth
Question 26: Which of the following is a theme dealt with in Shakespeare’s sonnets?
(A) Love
(B) Mortality
(C) The passage of time
(D) All of the above
Question 27: In his sonnets, Shakespeare refers to two ways to achieve a minor form of immortality. What are they?
(A) Charity and penitence
(B) Organ donation and embalming
(C) Literature and fatherhood
(D) Sculpture and music
Question 28: In the fourth verse of sonnet 18, we can find vocabulary belonging to which of the following semantic fields?
(A) Travel
(B) Military
(C) Economics
(D) Food
Question 29: How many of Shakespeare’s sonnets dwell on a religious theme?
(A) Every one of them
(B) 126
(C) Just 1
(D) The first 17 and the last 17
Question 30: In Shakespeare’s _____________ the author (who could be any man, not necessarily Shakespeare) starts the sonnet by speaking of his life.
(A) Sonnet 29, When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes
(B) Sonnet 18, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
(C) Sonnet 116, Let me not to the marriage of true minds
(D) Sonnet 20, A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand-painted
Question 31: Shakespeare sonnet ____ is the final member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet shows how Time and Nature coincide.
(A) 18
(B) 166
(C) 126
(D) 130
Question 32: Shakespeare sonnets 1 to 126 form a series, addressed to a ___________.
(A) old lady
(B) beautiful youth
(C) dark lady
(D) child
Question 33: Shakespeare sonnets 127 to 152 are addressed to a ____________ .
(A) old lady
(B) beautiful youth
(C) dark lady
(D) child
Question 34: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls on supernatural powers to _________.
(A) ‘sleek o’er your rugged looks’
(B) ‘unsex me here’
(C) ‘hover through fog and filthy air’
(D) ‘beguile the time’
Question 35: In which century was Shakespeare born?
(A) 14th
(B) 15th
(C) 16th
(D) 17th
Question 36: Shakespeare joined the Chamber lain’s Men Theatrical Company as a __________.
(A) Actor and playwright
(B) Playwright and poet
(C) Playwright and writer
(D) Production and Playwright
Question 37: Which one of the following terms is often called for England’s national poet, William Shakespeare?
(A) Bard of London
(B) Master Dramatist
(C) Supreme Poet
(D) Bard of Avon
Question 38: When was William Shakespeare baptized?
(A) 24 July 1564
(B) 16 April 1564
(C) 26 April 1564
(D) 26 August 1564