30 Shakespeare Quiz Questions

Share:

These William Shakespeare quiz questions are divided into three different rounds. You can reveal the correct answer with a click of a button – have fun!

Shakespeare Quiz: Round 1

1. What famous stage direction prefaces the death of Antigonus in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale?

‘Exit, pursued by a bear’

2. In The Comedy of Errors, in which two cities are the two sets of twins based?

Ephesus and Syracuse

3. Which play is popularly believed to have been written because Queen Elizabeth I liked the character of Sir John Falstaff from the Henry IV plays?

The Merry Wives of Windsor

4. Which of Shakespeare’s plays (probably a collaboration) tells the story of Palamon and Arcite? Which even older classic of English literature featured a version of the same story?

The Two Noble Kinsmen; Chaucer’s ‘Knight’s Tale’ from the Canterbury Tales

5. Prospero is the rightful duke of which city in The Tempest? What is the name of his spirit-servant?

Milan, Ariel

6. Who accompanies Macbeth in the opening scene of the play, and what is his role later in the play?

Banquo; he is killed by Macbeth and returns as a ghost to haunt him

7. Which tragic Shakespearean hero strangles his own wife in a fit of jealousy? Who puts him up to it?

Othello, Iago

8. Who is the friend of Romeo and the house of Montague whose death sets off the tragic events of Romeo and Juliet? Who kills him?

Mercutio; Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin

9. What was the semi-humorous narrative poem Shakespeare wrote in 1592-3 about a Greek god and her mortal lover?

Venus and Adonis

10. Of what profession are Dogberry (Mucho Ado About Nothing), Dull (Love’s Labours Lost) and Elbow (Measure for Measure)?

Constables (the law in Shakespeare plats were usually portrayed as a bit dim and served as a comic turn)

William Shakespeare Quiz Round 2 – some Shakespearean quotes

shakespeare quiz questions and answers

11. ‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.’ Who is describing who in which play?

Enobarblus speaking about Cleopatra in Anthony and Cleopatra

12. ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ Who speaks these famous lines, the beginning of a speech referred to as the ‘seven ages of a man’? In Which play?

Jaques in As You Like It

13. ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be’. Who gives his son this advice in Hamlet?

Polonius

14. ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’ Who says this?

Henry V

15. ‘I am no orator as Brutus is; but as you know me all, a plain blunt man.’ Who is being a little disingenuous in which play?

Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar

16. ‘Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.’ Who is getting a bit worked up?

Macbeth

17. ‘And thus is clothe my naked villainy, with odd ends stol’n forth of holy writ, and seem a saint, when most I play the devil.’. Who is revelling in his own wickedness?

Richard III

18. ‘Oh happy dagger, this is thy sheath! there rust, and let me die’. Who is on the point of suicide?

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet

19. ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ’em’. Who is deceiving himself into believing his mistress (employer) is in love with him? Who is his mistress?

Malvolio is reading the letter purporting to be from his Mistress, Olivia, declaring her love for him in Twelfth Night

20. ‘Uneasy lies the head that bears the crown.’ Which king is in a contemplative mood?

King Henry IV in Part 2

Shakespeare Quiz Round 3 – multiple choice

Share the quiz to show your results !


Just tell us who you are to view your results !

Shakespeare Quiz I got %%score%% of %%total%% right
0%

Share: