Collection of important MCQs on William Shakespeare
There are total _______ number of plays did Shakespeare write in all ?
(A) 60
(B) 38
(C) 37
(D) 20
Question’s Answer: 37
____ called Shakespeare “an upstart crow beautified with our
feathers”?
(A) John Lyly
(B) Robert Greene
(C) Thomas Kyd
(D) George Peele
Question’s Answer: Robert Greene
Who is the writer of the malicious pamphlet entitled “A Groat’s Worth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance” against Shakespeare?
(A) Thomas Kyd
(B) Robert Greene
(C) George Peele
(D) John Lyly
Question’s Answer: Robert Greene
Who ridiculed Shakespeare by saying that he knew “small Latin and less Greek”?
(A) Marlowe
(B) Sidney
(C) Spenser
(D) Ben Jonson
Question’s Answer: Ben Jonson
Who said,”Shakespeare has only heroines, and no heroes”?
(A) Ruskin
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) T. S. Eliot
Question’s Answer: Ruskin
Aldous Huxley took the hint for the title of his novel Brave New World from
Shakespeare’s:
(A) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(B) Winter’s Tale
(C) Tempest
(D) Antony and Cleopatra
Question’s Answer: Tempest
Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon. Stratford was the name of the town where
he was born. What was Avon?
(A) A high plateau on which Stratford was situated
(B) A hillock on which Stratford was situated
(C) A river on the bank of which Stratford was situated
(D) A heath where Stratford was situated
Question’s Answer: A river on the bank of which Stratford was situated
Shakespeare’s King Lear was given a happy ending by one of the following playwrights. Identify the playwright:
(A) Nahun Tate
(B) Nathaniel Lee
(C) Thomas Otway
(D) George Farquhar
Question’s Answer: Nahun Tate
“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale.” About whom are these lines spoken ?
(A) Desdemona
(B) Cordelia
(C) Cleopatra
(D) Miranda
Question’s Answer: Cleopatra
Imogen is the main character and heroine of which of the following?
(A) Winter’s Tale
(B) Pericles
(C) Cymbeline
(D) Tempest
Question’s Answer: Cymbeline
Who is the author of the critical work Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reconsidered?
(A) E.M. Forster
(B) WH Auden
(C) Samuel Butler
(D) Charles Lamb
Question’s Answer: Samuel Butler
“The greatest genius that perhaps human nature has yet produced, our myriad-minded
Shakespeare.” Who makes this observation?
(A) Hazlitt
(B) Coleridge
(C) Southey
(D) Byron
Question’s Answer: Coleridge
Which was the last play written by Shakespeare?
(A) Cymbeline
(B) The Winter’s Tale
(C) The Tempest
(D) Pericles
Question’s Answer: The Tempest
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” This line is related to which play?
(A) The Merchant of Venice
(B) Romeo and Juliet
(C) Twelfth Night
(D) As You Like It
Question’s Answer: As You Like It
“Frailty, thy name is woman !” This line is part of which play?
(A) Othello
(B) Macbeth
(C) King Lear
(D) Hamlet
Question’s Answer: Hamlet
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” These lines are taken from Hamlet. Who is the speaker of these qoutations?
(A) Hamlet
(B) Laertes
(C) Horatio
(D) Polonius
Question’s Answer: Polonius
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.” These lines are taken from which of the following play?
(A) Hamlet
(B) Othello
(C) King Lear
(D) None of these
Question’s Answer: Hamlet
“Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never tastes of death but once.” These lines are taken from which of the following play?
(A) Macbeth
(B) Othello
(C) Antony and Cleopatra
(D) Julius Caesar
Question’s Answer: Julius Caesar
………. Life’s a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Singnifying nothing.”
These lines are taken from which of the following play?
(A) King Lear
(B) Hamlet
(C) Othello
(D) Macbeth
Question’s Answer: Macbeth
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war”
Who expresses these sentiments in Richard II?
(A) Richard II
(B) Bolingbroke
(C) John of Gaunt
(D) Queen of Richard II
Question’s Answer: John of Gaunt
Who is the messenger of the Fairies in The Tempest?
(A) Ariel
(B) Juno
(C) Caliban
(D) Iris
Question’s Answer: Ariel
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.” Who is the speaker of these qoutations?
(A) Brutus
(B) Prospero
(C) Hamlet
(D) Polonius
Question’s Answer: Prospero
“He was not of an age, but for all times; Nature herself was proud of his designs !”
Who is the author of Preface to Shakespeare?
(A) Dr. Johnson
(B) Matthew Arnold
(C) Hazlitt
(D) Coleridge
Question’s Answer: Dr. Johnson
Who is the writer of the critical book Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays?
(A) Addison
(B) Coleridge
(C) Arnold
(D) Hazlitt
Question’s Answer: Hazlitt
________ is the play in which the hero dies at the end of the Fourth Act, but the play
continues to the Fifth Act:
(A) Antony and Cleopatra
(B) Richard the Second
(C) Coriolanus
(D) King John
Question’s Answer: Antony and Cleopatra
________ is the play in which the hero and the heroine die together:
(A) Romeo and Juliet
(B) Othello
(C) Cleopatra
(D) Macbeth
Question’s Answer: Romeo and Juliet
Which is not a Roman play?
(A) Antony and Cleopatra
(B) Timon of Athens
(C) Titus Andronicus
(D) Coriolanus
Question’s Answer: Timon of Athens
Who praises Shakespeare in these words?
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) Spenser
(C) Ben Jonson
(D) Dr. Johnson
Question’s Answer: Ben Jonson
“He was the man, who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest
and the most comprehensive soul.”
Whose observation is this?
(A) Ben Jonson’s
(B) Robert Browning’s
(C) Coleridge’s
(D) Dryden’s
Question’s Answer: Dryden’s
“Shakespeare is the grandest thing we have yet done…… Indian Empire will go, at any
rate, some day, but this Shakespeare does not go, he lasts for ever with us. We cannot
give up our Shakespeare.”
Who has that opinion?
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) Dryden
(C) Carlyle
(D) Carlyle
Question’s Answer: Carlyle
In which year were Shakespeare’s Sonnets published?
(A) 1616
(B) 1598
(C) 1609
(D) 1600
Question’s Answer: 1609
“Others abide our question Thou art free. We ask and ask-thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge.” These lines are written in praise of Shakespeare.
Who is the writer of them?
(A) Hazlitt
(B) Coleridge
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Tennyson
Question’s Answer: Matthew Arnold
“Soul of the age!
The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare, rise.”
Who praises Shakespeare in these words?
(A) Dryden
(B) Spenser
(C) Ben Jonson
(D) Dr. Johnson
Question’s Answer: Ben Jonson
What is Rape of Lucrece?
(A) A sonnet
(B) A narrative poem
(C) An early comedy
(D) A narrative poem
Question’s Answer: A narrative poem
In which play does Hermione appear as the heroine ?
(A) Timon of Athens
(B) The Winter’s Tale
(C) Cymbeline
(D) Pericles
Question’s Answer: The Winter’s Tale
For what is the phrase ‘The Mousetrap’ used by Shakespeare in Hamlet?
(A) The Play within the Play in Hantlet
(B) The ghost of Hamlet’s father
(C) The Play within the Play in Hantlet
(D) Hamlet’s Conscience
Question’s Answer: The Play within the Play in Hantlet
Dryden’s play All For Love is based on one of Shakespeare’s plays.
(A) Antony and Cleopatra
(B) Romeo and Juliet
(C) Tempest
(D) The Merchant of Venice
Question’s Answer: Antony and Cleopatra
The phrase “What’s in a name ?” is a part of which of the following?
(A) Othello
(B) Hamlet
(C) Julius Caesar
(D) Romeo and Juliet
Question’s Answer: Romeo and Juliet
How many sonnets did Shakespeare write in all ?
(A) 40
(B) 170
(C) 155
(D) 154
Question’s Answer: 154
What is Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonais?
(A) A Narrative poem
(B) A Tragedy
(C) A Comedy
(D) A Romance
Question’s Answer: A Narrative poem
To ____ , Shakespeare dedicate his first Narrative poem Venus and Adonais ?
(A) Earl of Southampton
(B) James I
(C) Queen Elizabeth
(D) Ben Jonson
Question’s Answer: Earl of Southampton
According to _____, “The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
(A) Portia’s
(B) Cordelia’s
(C) Miranda’s
(D) Desdemona’s
Question’s Answer: Portia’s
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact”
quoted from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Who is the speaker of these qoutations?
These lines are
(A) Theseus
(B) Hippolyta
(C) Philostrate
(D) Bottom
Question’s Answer: Theseus
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