Beginnings in Shakespeare

January is the month of beginnings––the month of new leaves, turned pages, and fresh starts. Through this quiz, test your knowledge of how Shakespeare begins his plays. Each section increases in difficulty; answers are provided at the end.

Questions

Level 1: Name the Play

1. "Boatswain!" 

2. "Who's there?"

3. "I learn in this letter that Don Peter of Arragon comes this night to Messina."

4. "Before we proceed any further, hear me speak."

5. "Good day, sir."

Level 2: Fill in the Blank

1. "Two households, both alike in _______" (Romeo and Juliet)

2. "Proceed, _______, to procure my fall / And by the doom of death end woes and all." (The Comedy of Errors)

3. "Now, fair Hippolyta, our _______ hour / Draws on apace;" (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

4. "_____ patricians, patrons of my right," (Titus Andronicus)

5. "Let ____, that all hunt after in their lives, / Live register'd upon our brazen tombs / And then grace us in the disgrace of death;" (Love's Labor's Lost)

Level 3: Unscramble the Line

1. "NEHW LALHS EW ERTEH TEME GINAA" (Macbeth)

2. "NI TOSOH, I NOWK TNO HWY I MA OS DSA:" (The Merchant of Venice)

3. "ACSEE OT UDPRAESE, YM VNILGO SERPOUT:" (Two Gentlemen of Verona)

4. "I ODREWN WHO HET GNIK EECSDPA URO NDASH." (Henry VI, Part 3)

5. "OYU OD TON EMET A NAM TUB SNORWF: ROU DOBOLS" (Cymbeline)

Level 4: Name the Speaker

1. "If music be the food of love, play on;" (Twelfth Night)

2. "Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home:" (Julius Caesar)

3. "I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall." (King Lear)

4. "Now is the winter of our discontent" (Richard III)

5. "Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly / That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse / As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this." (Othello)

Level 5 (Bonus!): Identify the Location

1. "If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia." (A Winter's Tale)

2. "Boatswain!" (play revealed in answers to Level 1, Question 1)

3. "Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!" (Henry VI, Part 1)

4. "Tranio, since for the great desire I had / To see fair Padua, nursery of arts / I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy, The pleasant garden of great Italy;" (The Taming of the Shrew)

5. "Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals." (Romeo and Juliet)  *This is the first line of Act 1, Scene 1. Level 2, Question 1 is the first line of the prologue.

~ End of Quiz ~

Scroll past the image for answers.

Answers

Level 1

1. The Comedy of Errors

2. Hamlet

3. Much Ado About Nothing

4. Coriolanus

5. Timon of Athens

Level 2

1. "Two households, both alike in dignity" (Romeo and Juliet)

2. "Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall / And by the doom of death end woes and all." (The Comedy of Errors)

3. "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour / Draws on apace;" (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

4. "Noble patricians, patrons of my right," (Titus Andronicus)

5. "Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, / Live register'd upon our brazen tombs / And then grace us in the disgrace of death;" (Love's Labor's Lost)

Level 3

1. "When shall we three meet again" (Macbeth)

2. "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:" (The Merchant of Venice)

3. "Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:" (Two Gentlemen of Verona)

4. "I wonder how the king escaped our hands." (Henry VI, Part 3)

5. "You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods" (Cymbeline)

Level 4

1. Duke Orsino

2. Flavius

3. Kent

4. Gloucester

5. Roderigo

Level 5

1. Antechamber in Leontes' palace

2. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

3. Westminster Abbey

4. Padua. A public place.

5. Verona. A public place.

How many did you get? Drop us a comment with your score!