Shakespeare's World Quiz

Shakespeare composed his plays during the reigns of which two English monarchs?

William III and Anne

Henry VIII and Edward VI

Elizabeth I and James I

Victoria and Edward VII

The Globe Theatre in London, where many of Shakespeare's most famous plays were first performed, was destroyed by fire in 1613. How did the fire start?

Globe Theatre in London (Image credit: Gillian Darley/Edifice/Corbis)

A theater patron accidentally dropped his lit pipe into a bale of hay.

A cannon discharged during a performance of "Henry VIII" set fire to the thatched roof.

A Puritan arsonist set fire to the wooden stage.

The building next to the theater was on fire, and the flames spread to the Globe.

Which gifted contemporary of Shakespeare wrote the masterpiece "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus," and was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl?

Robert Greene

Thomas Nashe

George Chapman

Christopher Marlowe

Shakespeare's poetry, not his plays, reached print first.

True

False

English poet and dramatist Ben Jonson's first original play, "Every Man in His Humour," was performed in 1598 with which man as a cast member?

Ben Jonson (Image credit: Culver Pictures)

Thomas Dekker

John Marston

William Shakespeare

Sir Walter Raleigh

At the Globe Theatre, members of the general public paid 1 penny apiece to watch the play while standing in the yard or "pit." These attendees had several nicknames, including "commoners," "groundlings" and:

Globe Theatre Interior (Image credit: Marianna Day Massey /Zuma Press Inc.)

Penny-pinchers

Stinkards

Cheapskates

Belly-itchers

This English actor -- considered to be the first great English theater performer -- gave life to many leading Shakespeare roles, including Hamlet, Lear, Othello and Richard III. Who is he?

Richard Burbage

Joseph Taylor

Nathan Field

Edward Alleyn

In which picturesque English town was Shakespeare born?

Shakespeare's Birthplace (Image credit: Topham/The Image Works)

Crickhollow

Stratford-upon-Avon

Little Whinging

Wotton-under-Edge

Queen Elizabeth was a leading patron of the theater, and attended the Globe's performances so frequently that she and several other aristocratic patrons had specially designated royal seats right in front of the stage.

Elizabeth I (Image credit: Hulton Deutsch)

True

False

Two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare, John Heminges and Henry Condell, collected 36 of his plays into a 900-page book known as the First Folio. In what year was it published?

William Shakespeare (Image credit: Bettmann/Corbis)

1608

1611

1616

1623