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

This Father's Day, find out how well you know the fathers 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 Father

1. Whose father appears to him as a ghost?

    a) Banquo

    b) Richard III

    c) Hamlet

    d) None of the above

2. Which father is the rightful Duke of Milan?

    a) Lord Montague

    b) Baptista

    c) Lear

    d) Prospero

3. Which father believes that his daughter was bewitched or drugged when she fell in love with her husband?

    a) Gloucester

    b) Brabantio

    c) Lord Capulet

    d) Egeon

4. Who is the father of Florizel in The Winter's Tale?

    a) Leontes

    b) Polixenes

    c) Antigonus

    d) An unnamed man

5. In Measure for Measure, who is imprisoned for having impregnated a woman out of wedlock?

    a) Claudio

    b) Claudius

    c) Lucio

    d) Lucius

Level 2: Guess the Speaker

6. "This above all: to thine own self be true"

    a) Laertes

    b) Polonius

    c) Claudius

    d) Hamlet

7. "Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall / And by the doom of death end woes and all."

    a) Egeon

    b) The Duke of Ephesus

    c) Antipholus of Ephesus

    d) Antipholus of Syracuse

8. "Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast killed my child: / If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man."

    a) Benedick

    b) Claudio

    c) Leonato

    d) Leonato's brother

9. "Full of vexation come I, with complaint / Against my child, my daughter...she will not here before your grace / Consent to marry [name redacted] / I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, / As she is mine, I may dispose of her"

    a) Egeus

    b) Duke Frederick

    c) Leontes

    d) Baptista

10. "He hath found the meaning, for which we mean / To have his head. / He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy, / Nor tell the world [speaker's name] doth sin / In such a loathed manner; / And therefore instantly this prince must die: / For by his fall my honor must keep high."

    a) Macbeth

    b) Brabantio

    c) Claudius

    d) Antiochus

Level 3: Guess the Actor

11. Laurence Olivier adapted, directed, and starred in a famous 1948 film adaptation of Hamlet. Who played the ghost of Hamlet's father?

    a) Basil Sydney

    b) Ralph Richardson

    c) Marlon Brando

    d) Laurence Olivier

12. In 2007, the RSC starred Ian McKellen in title role of King Lear. Who played the Earl of Gloucester?  

    a) Ben Kingsley

    b) William Gaunt

    c) Greg Hicks

    d) Benedict Cumberbatch

13. Who played Banquo in the 2010 TV adaptation of Macbeth that featured Patrick Stewart in the title role?

    a) Christopher Patrick Nolan

    b) Dominic Rowan

    c) Martin Turner

    d) Bernard Hepton

14. Who played Baptista in the original 1953 film adaptation of Kiss Me, Kate?

    a) Kurt Kasznar

    b) Howard Keel

    c) Tommy Rall

    d) Dave O'Brien

15. The longest-running broadway adaptation of As You Like It ran for 145 performances in 1950 and starred Katherine Hepburn as Rosalind. Who played Duke Frederick?

    a) Dayton Lummis

    b) Walter Burke

    c) Christopher Plummer

    d) Robert Bray

Level 4: Bonus question!

16. What was the official occupation of Shakespeare's father, John?

    a) Playwright

    b) Carpenter

    c) Glovemaker

    d) Teacher

Photo: Laurence Olivier in his 1948 Hamlet film adaptation.
Credit: The Telegraph, Rank/Film productions.

Answers

Level 1

1. C

2. D

3. B

4. B

5. A. There is no Claudius, nor Lucius, in Measure for Measure (but there is a Lucio). 

Level 2

6. B

7. A

8. C

9. A

10. D

Level 3

11. D

12. B. Hicks portrayed Lear at the RSC three years after McKellen, in 2010.

13. C

14. A

15. A

Level 4

16. C