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Top 110 Shakespeare MCQs (Multiple Choice) for TGT & PGT Exams (Part 1/3)
Are you preparing for competitive teaching exams like the TGT, PGT, LT, KVS, or UGC NET/JRF? A thorough understanding of William Shakespeare is non-negotiable. This multiple-choice question format is designed to rigorously test your knowledge and simulate real exam conditions.
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This is Part 1 of our three-part series, covering fundamental questions (1-110) about Shakespeare’s life, early works, famous quotes, and contemporaries. Let’s begin your preparation!
- 1. When and where was William Shakespeare born?Ans- A. 23rd April 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon
- 2. What do you understand by the word ‘Avon’ in the birth place of William Shakespeare?Ans- B. a river
- 3. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon but what county is the town in?Ans- C. Warwickshire
- 4. How many plays did Shakespeare write?Ans- A. 37
- 5. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?Ans- B. 154
- 6. What was the reason of Shakespeare’s leaving Stratford?Ans- B. He was caught stealing a deer from Sir Thomas Lucy’s Park
- 7. What is Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis?Ans- C. A narrative poem
- 8. To whom did Shakespeare dedicate his poem ‘Venus and Adonis’?Ans- D. Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton
- 9. It is believed that Shakespeare was found guilty of deer poaching in the garden of?Ans- C. Thomas Lucy
- 10. Who wrote the following lines against Shakespeare “A Groats’ Worth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance”?Ans- C. Robert Greene
- 11. When did William Shakespeare begin a successful career in London as an actor?Ans- A. Between 1585 and 1592
- 12. Who called Shakespeare “An upstart crow beautified with our feathers.”?Ans- B. Robert Greene
- 13. When and which company of actors was joined by Shakespeare?Ans- B. Burbage’s company of actors in 1587
- 14. Who said, ”Small Latin and less Greek” about Shakespeare?Ans- C. Ben Jonson
- 15. In Coriolanus, Coriolanus was publicly killed by-Ans- A. Aufidius
- 16. Which play bore Shakespeare’s name as author for the first time?Ans- B. Love’s Labour’s Lost
- 17. “Shakespeare has only heroines and no heroes.” Who said these lines?Ans- A. John Ruskin
- 18. Cymbeline was written in the early months of the year…Ans- C. 1611
- 19. When were Shakespeare’s plays written?Ans- B. 16th and 17th Century
- 20. On which play of Shakespeare is Dryden’s All For Love based?Ans- D. Antony and Cleopatra
- 21. Which play of Shakespeare was included in the wedding celebrations for the princess Elizabeth?Ans- B. The Tempest
- 22. Who said that in Shakespeare’s great tragedies “character is destiny”?Ans- B. A.C. Bradley
- 23. What was the name of the theatre that Shakespeare is most famously associated with?Ans- C. The Globe
- 24. Who gave a happy ending to Shakespeare’s play King Lear?Ans- B. Nahum Tate
- 25. When was The Tempest written?Ans- C. 1611
- 26. Shakespeare’s Roman plays are based on-Ans- C. North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives
- 27. Which theatre company, partly owned by Shakespeare, first performed his masterpieces?Ans- B. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men / The King’s Men
- 28. The line “What’s in a name?” is from the Play–Ans- C. Romeo and Juliet
- 29. Which one is considered to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone?Ans- A. The Tempest
- 30. Who said about Shakespeare “He was the man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul”?Ans- B. John Dryden
- 31. What was the first name of the playing company King’s Men that William Shakespeare partly-owned?Ans- D. Lord Chamberlain’s Men
- 32. Henry V was composed in the year —Ans- C. 1599 (Note: the original answer “1598” is close, but 1599 is more widely accepted)
- 33. The title of the Faulkner’s novel ‘The Sound and the Fury’ is taken from Shakespeare’s play-Ans- C. Macbeth
- 34. Shakespeare’s English historical plays are based on-Ans- B. Holinshed’s Chronicles
- 35. What happened to the Globe Theatre in 1613?Ans- B. It burnt down
- 36. Shakespeare attacks the Puritans in the character of Malvolio in the Play–Ans- B. Twelfth Night
- 37. Shakespeare took the plot for his play ‘As You Like It’ from-Ans- B. Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde
- 38. Which tragedy is considered to be the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies?Ans- B. Coriolanus
- 39. Which play is generally considered to be the first tragedy Shakespeare wrote?Ans- C. Titus Andronicus (Note: Romeo and Juliet is an early tragedy, but Titus is earlier and more purely tragic in the Senecan model)
- 40. How is Sam Wanamaker connected with Shakespeare?Ans- B. He led the campaign to rebuild the Globe Theatre in London (The original answer was incorrect)
- 41. “age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.” About whom are these lines spoken?Ans- A. Cleopatra
- 42. From which play is the line “age cannot wither her, nor custom stale” taken?Ans- C. Antony and Cleopatra
- 43. In which year was Coriolanus written?Ans- C. 1608
- 44. In which play did Shakespeare collaborate with John Fletcher?Ans- C. Henry VIII (Note: The original Q named Henry IV and Thomas Lodge which is inaccurate).
- 45. Where did Shakespeare retire to?Ans- C. Stratford-on-Avon
- 46. From which play did Aldous Huxley take the title of his novel ‘Brave New World’?Ans- C. The Tempest
- 47. What is the subtitle of Shakespeare’s play ‘Pericles’?Ans- B. Prince of Tyre
- 48. Who made a famous Freudian interpretation of Hamlet?Ans- C. Ernest Jones
- 49. Which of the following lines are from the epitaph of Shakespeare?Ans- B. Curst be he that moves my bones
- 50. Who is the heroine in the play Cymbeline?Ans- D. Imogen
- 51. Pericles came out in the year-Ans- C. 1608 (Approximate; pub. 1609)
- 52. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is believed to be influenced by an earlier play, possibly by Thomas Kyd, often referred to as the-Ans- A. Ur-Hamlet (The Spanish Tragedy has thematic similarities but Ur-Hamlet is the direct source)
- 53. Who wrote the poem Venus and Adonis?Ans- C. William Shakespeare
- 54. The plot of Venus and Adonis is based on a passage from-Ans- C. Ovid’s Metamorphoses
- 55. Venus and Adonis is written in stanzas of-Ans- B. Six lines (sestain)
- 56. Who wrote “Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reconsidered.”?Ans- D. Samuel Butler
- 57. In ‘The Winter’s Tale’ Perdita is finally married to-Ans- C. Florizel
- 58. What is the tragic flaw (hamartia) in Othello?Ans- D. Jealousy
- 59. “Good friend, for Jesus ‘ sake forbeare…” These lines are found on-Ans- B. Shakespeare’s Tomb
- 60. Who wrote ‘Tales from Shakespeare’?Ans- A. Charles and Mary Lamb
- 61. Perdita, in ‘The Winter’s Tale’, is the daughter of-Ans- C. Leontes
- 62. Shakespeare chiefly wrote-Ans- B. Romantic comedies & Tragedies
- 63. Where do these lines appear: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, / Nor the furious winter’s rages”?Ans- C. Cymbeline
- 64. Who is the writer of ‘Preface to Shakespeare’?Ans- C. Dr. Samuel Johnson
- 65. Shelley’s ‘Ariel to Miranda’ was inspired by Shakespeare’s play-Ans- B. The Tempest
- 66. Which of the following plays of Shakespeare is not a tragedy?Ans- C. Twelfth Night
- 67. Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece belong to the category of-Ans- D. Narrative poems
- 68. Who wrote the critical book ‘Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays’?Ans- A. William Hazlitt
- 69. In Coriolanus, Aufidius is a…?Ans- B. Volscian General
- 70. Which character does not belong to The Tempest?Ans- C. Desdemona
- 71. Select the term often used for England’s National Poet, William Shakespeare.Ans- D. Bard of Avon
- 72. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” is taken from the Play –Ans- C. As You Like It
- 73. When Alfred Tennyson died, a copy of which Shakespeare play was found on his bed?Ans- C. Cymbeline
- 74. The story of Othello is set in-Ans- B. Venice and Cyprus
- 75. Who wrote the celebrated book ‘Shakespearean Tragedy’?Ans- D. A.C. Bradley
- 76. “Frailty, thy name is woman!” is taken from-Ans- C. Hamlet
- 77. What is the name of the husband of Hermione in Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale?Ans- B. Leontes
- 78. What was the name of the King of Scotland murdered by Macbeth in the play Macbeth?Ans- D. Duncan
- 79. Shylock is a character in Shakespeare’s-Ans- B. Merchant of Venice
- 80. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” is spoken by whom in Hamlet?Ans- D. Polonius
- 81. In ‘The Winter’s Tale’, Leontes is the king of-Ans- B. Sicily
- 82. Which play of Shakespeare is often considered his most delightful and perfect comedy?Ans- C. Twelfth Night
- 83. Who is known as the ‘fourth witch’ among Shakespeare’s women characters?Ans- A. Lady Macbeth
- 84. The lines ”There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” are from the play-Ans- C. Hamlet
- 85. Which play of Shakespeare likely inspired Milton to write Comus?Ans- A. The Tempest
- 86. Who is Hamlet’s beloved in Hamlet?Ans- B. Ophelia
- 87. The name of Macbeth’s wife in the Shakespearean play is-Ans- D. None of the above
- 88. In which play of Shakespeare does the hero die at the end of the 4th act, though the play continues to Act V?Ans- C. Antony and Cleopatra
- 89. Who said that The Tempest’s plot is regular?Ans- C. Johnson
- 90. The line “Life is a tale told by an idiot” has been taken from-Ans- D. Macbeth
- 91. Who speaks: “The sleeping and the dead / Are but as pictures; ‘tis the eye of childhood / That fears a painted devil”?Ans- C. Lady Macbeth
- 92. In which play do the hero and heroine die together?Ans- C. Romeo and Juliet
- 93. Which play uses North’s Version of Plutarch’s ‘Life of Caius Martius Coriolanus’ as its source?Ans- B. Coriolanus
- 94. Who said “Others abide our question, thou art free” about Shakespeare?Ans- C. Matthew Arnold
- 95. Which play below does not belong to the category of Shakespeare’s great tragedies?Ans- D. The Tempest
- 96. Which of the following is not a Roman play by Shakespeare?Ans- D. Timon of Athens
- 97. Who acted as the chorus throughout the play in Shakespeare’s Pericles?Ans- B. Gower
- 98. What is the collective name given to Pre-Shakespearean playwrights like Marlowe, Kyd, Peele and Greene?Ans- C. The University Wits
- 99. In its mingling of tragedy and comedy, the English novel reveals the influence of —Ans- C. Shakespeare
- 100. Whom does Polonius send to France to spy on Laertes?Ans- B. Reynaldo
- 101. The lines “Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once” are from-Ans- C. Julius Caesar
- 102. Who speaks the lines “Hang there like fruit, my soul, / Till the tree die” in Cymbeline?Ans- C. Posthumus
- 103. Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra are Shakespeare’s-Ans- B. Roman plays
- 104. How many characters die during the course of the play Hamlet?Ans- C. 8
- 105. Who speaks the “The quality of mercy is not strained” speech in The Merchant of Venice?Ans- B. Portia
- 106. Who considered the lines “Hang there like fruit, my soul…” as “The tenderest lines in Shakespeare”?Ans- C. Tennyson
- 107. Who wrote the critical work “Shakespeare and his Predecessors”?Ans- B. Frederick Boas
- 108. The line ”To be, or not to be: that is the question” is spoken by-Ans- C. Hamlet
- 109. Who speaks the lines: “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact”?Ans- D. Theseus
- 110. The song “When daffodils begin to peer” is from which play of Shakespeare?Ans- A. The Winter’s Tale
This completes the first part of our essential Shakespeare MCQs. Review these questions to solidify your foundational knowledge. Continue to the next section to tackle more advanced topics.