The Great Chain of Being Quiz (with Explanations)

 1) “his delights/Were dolphin-like; they show'd his back above/The element they lived in” (From Antony and Cleopatra)

Where does the dolphin fit into the Chain?

 

 

 

 

2) Where does Prospero from The Tempest fit into the Chain?

 

 

 

3) “your actions,/Soon as they moves, as asprays do the fish,/Subdue before they touch.” (From Two Noble Kinsmen)

What does the image of ospreys convey about Theseus the King?

 

 

 

4) “There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st/But in his motion like an angel sings,/Still quiring* to the young-eyed Cherubins.” (From The Merchant of Venice)

Note: quiring refers to singing as a choir

What does this suggest about the placement of the Cherubin with respect to the stars in the Chain?

 

 

 

5) “The sun's a thief and with his great attraction/Robs the vast sea. The moon's an arrant thief,/And her pale fire she snatches from the sun./The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves/The moon into salt tears. The earth's a thief,/That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n/From gen'ral excrement. (From Timon of Athens)

What are the thieves in this passage stealing?

 

 

 

6) “the elements/So mix'd in him [Brutus] that Nature might stand up/And say to all the world 'This was a man!'” (From Julius Caesar)

What does this suggest about Brutus' character?

 

 

7) In Shakespeare's four most famous tragedies, two of the lead characters (Othello and Lear) are defective in logical understanding, and two (Hamlet and Macbeth) are defective in moral will.

How does that reflect the Elizabethan Great Chain of Being?

 

 

 

8) “Take but degree away, untune that string,/And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets/In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters/Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores/And make a sop of all this solid globe:” (From Troilus and Cressida)

What principle of the Great Chain of Being does the comparison between civil strife and unrest in nature illustrate?

 

 

 

9) “Taurus: that's sides and heart./No, sir, it is legs and thighs.” (From Twelfth Night)

Which part of the quotation is the microcosm, and which the macrocosm?

 

 
10) “Yet he looks like a king: behold, his eye,/As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth/Controlling majesty.” (From Richard II)

This quotation explicitly establishes the supremacy of king among men and of eagles among birds. The description of King Richard's eye suggests what other supremacy in the Great Chain of Being? 

Need a hint? Think Sonnet 130 (My mistress' eyes...)!

 

 

 

Need to brush up on your Great Chain of Being knowledge? Check out our latest reference post!