Sunday, January 17, 2016

1902 Shakespeare quiz, Part 3

In which the questions range from fairly normal trivia to "Guess what B.W.H. was thinking when he wrote this."

10) What lady in the Plays gave a critical opinion on her physical attractions? How many others are there of her name in the plays?
11) What Shakespearean characters played billiards?
12) What pair of lovers in the Plays played chess?
13) What was the maiden name of Petruchio's wife?
14) What Shakespearean characters mixed their metaphors?
15) What poetry did Falstaff propose to supply a theme for?
16) What character in the Plays gives a purely fanciful definition of a Latin noun to make a point in an argument?
17) Give three examples of Shakespeare's opinion of schoolmasters?
18) Two characters in the plays are said to have been born under the influence of certain planets; and one under a constellation. Name characters and influences?
19) What animal did Shakespeare hear of being hung for killing a human being?

5 comments:

Fretful Porpentine said...

10) Helena in Midsummer. Either one or two, depending on whether you regard "Helena" and "Helen" as the same name or not.
11) Cleopatra and Mardian.
12) Ferdinand and Miranda.
13) Minola.
14) Um, probably most of them? I'd assume he was probably thinking of Hamlet ("to take arms against a sea of troubles"), but I have no idea who else he might have had in mind.
15) ??? I'm not sure what this question even means.
16) ?
17) OK, first off, I'm not sure we can conclude ANYTHING from the plays about Shakespeare's opinions, rather than the opinions of his characters, but there are at least three schoolmasters in them: Holofernes in LLL, who is a pompous ass; Euphronius in A&C, who appears in one scene, basically as a dutiful messenger; and Sir Hugh Evans in MWW, who is a little silly but essentially likable. So I guess Shakespeare's opinion of schoolmasters is that they are all different from one another?
18) Under planets: Conrade in Much Ado (Saturn) and Parolles in All's Well (Mars). Under constellations, I think B.W.H. was going for Edmund in King Lear (Ursa Major), but there's also Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night (Taurus).
19) ?

Flavia said...

For #14 I was assuming Dogberry, Bottom, et al.--but you're probably right that it's just about everyone.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Ooh, you may be right about that -- I bet that's what he really had in mind.

Bardiac said...

I was thinking of Olivia for #10, since she does the blazon thing. But I don't think there's more than one Olivia, is there?

Fretful Porpentine said...

Olivia is one of a kind!