How well do you know the mothers in Shakespeare's plays?

This Mother's Day, find out how well you know the mothers of Shakespeare's plays! Questions appear in order of increasing difficulty. Answers appear at the bottom of the page, below the image.

Level 1: Name the Mother

1. Which mother comes to life from a statue?

    a) Lady Capulet

    b) Lady Montague

    c) Margaret

    d) Hermione

2. Who is not a biological mother, but a motherly figure, to Juliet?

    a) Lady Capulet

    b) Lady Montague

    c) The Nurse

    d) None of the above

3. Who is mother to Caliban in The Tempest?

    a) Sycorax

    b) Prospero's unnamed wife

    c) An unidentified woman

    d) He has no mother

4. Who is the mother of Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia?

    a) Margaret

    b) Lady Lear

    c) An unnamed woman

    d) Tamora

5. Which mother dies by a poisoned drink?

    a) Lady Capulet

    b) Gertrude

    c) Margaret

    d) Volumnia

Level 2: Guess the Speaker

6. "would I had died a maid / And never seen thee, never borne thee son, / Seeing thou hast proved so unnatural a father / Hath he deserved to lose his birthright thus?"

    a) Constance

    b) Sycorax

    c) Margaret

    d) Hermione

7. "Show me a thousand that have done thee wrong, / And I will be revenged on them all."

    a) Elizabeth

    b) Gertrude

    c) Thaisa

    d) Tamora

8. "it shall scarce boot me / To say 'not guilty:' mine integrity / Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, / Be so received."

    a) Tamora

    b) Hermione

    c) Constance

    d) Dionyza

9. "I cannot tell what the dickens..."

    a) Mistress Page

    b) Lady Montague

    c) Margaret

    d) The Nurse

10. "I have a heart as little apt as yours, / But yet a brain that leads my use of anger / to better vantage."

    a) Volumnia

    b) Dionyza

    c) Hermione

    d) the Queen in Cymbeline

Level 3: Guess the Actress

11. Who played Gertrude in Sir Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet?

    a) Dame Judi Dench

    b) Dame Maggie Smith

    c) Julie Christie

    d) Vanessa Redgrave

12. Who played Queen Elizabeth in the 1995 film Richard III, which starred Sir Ian McKellen in the title role?

    a) Dame Diana Rigg

    b) Anna Friel

    c) Zoe Caldwell

    d) Annette Bening

13. Who played Cleopatra in the 1972 film adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra, directed by and featuring in the title role Charlton Heston? (Hint: she is pictured in the thumbnail of this post.)

    a) Helen Mirren

    b) Hildegarde Neil

    c) Virginia McKenna

    d) Patsy Byrne

14. Who played Hermione in the 2021 broadcasted RSC production of A Winter's Tale?

    a) Gemma Arteton

    b) Vanessa Kirby

    c) Kemi-Bo Jacobs

    d) Sally Bretton

15. Who played Volumnia in the 2007 RSC production of Coriolanus?

    a) Janet Suzman

    b) Rebecca Hall

    c) Rosamund Pike

    d) Susannah Fielding

Level 4: Bonus question!

16. What is the first name of Shakespeare's mother?

    a) Elizabeth

    b) Diana

    c) Joan

    d) Mary

Photo from the 1972 film Antony and Cleopatra,
directed by Charlton Heston.

Answers

Level 1

1. D

2. C. Choice A is Juliet's biological mother.

3. A

4. C. For Choice B, no such character exists in Shakespeare.

5. B

Level 2

6. C

7. D

8. B

9. A

10. A

Level 3

11. C

12. D

13. B

14. C

15. A

Level 4

16. D. Choice C is the female version of Shakespeare's father's name, John.