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Shakespeare's Language

Total questions: 14

Worksheet time: 8mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Shakespeare's plays are written in ...

a)

Old English

b)

Middle English

c)

Early Modern English

d)

Late Modern English

2.

True or False: Shakespeare wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream" before "Romeo & Juliet."

a)

True

b)

False

3.

Type in the Elizabethan pronoun to fill in the blank (hint: it is an "old-school" version of "You"): " (a)   art the best of the cutthroats!"

4.

__________ is the act of adding an apostrophe to a word and "skipping" the syllable (example: "o'er")

a)

Elision

b)

Excision

c)

Omission

d)

Partition

5.

This form of writing is NOT like poetry and resembles everyday speech.

a)

Verse

b)

Prose

c)

Rhyme

d)

Paragraphs

6.

Verse that does not rhyme but has a meter is called ...

a)

Iambic pentameter

b)

Blank verse

c)

Trochaic verse

d)

Prose

7.

Two lines of consecutive verse that rhyme with each other are called

(Use the plural form of this word!)

(a)  

8.

The meter of verse that Shakespeare used often in his plays is called ...

a)

Blank verse

b)

Iambic pentameter

c)

Couplet

d)

Iambic hexameter

9.

Is this sentence in iambic pentameter?: "I have to leave because I need to buy some food."

a)

Yes

b)

No

10.

How many end-stopped lines are in this speech?

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

a)

2

b)

3

c)

5

d)

7

11.

Imagine you're watching a Shakespeare play and a character is onstage revealing the depths of their heart and soul by explaining why they hate the protagonist. Onstage, you can see another character hiding, listening and reacting to what they hear.

Is the first character delivering a soliloquy?

a)

Yes

b)

No

12.

Which of the following is **NOT** a reason a character delivers a soliloquy.

a)

To communicate their thoughts to other characters.

b)

To make the audience like/hate them more.

c)

To comment on ongoing action in the play.

d)

To reveal their innermost thoughts and true character.

13.

The word "honest" appears 45 times in Shakespeare's "Othello," a play that ultimately becomes about jealousy and suspicion. The frequent use of this word is considered a ...

a)

Theme

b)

Motif

c)

Topic

d)

Motive

14.

Shakespearean sonnets consist of three _________ and one couplet.

a)

Verses

b)

Soliloquys

c)

Tercets

d)

Quatrains