Animals in Shakespeare Quiz

Question: In King Lear, the Earl of Gloucester's disinherited but loyal son Edgar describes his half-brother, Edmund, as a traitor spotted like which animal?

Answer: In King Lear, the Earl of Gloucester's disinherited but loyal son Edgar describes his half-brother, Edmund, as being, “from th’ extremest upward of thy head / To the descent and dust below thy foot, / A most toad-spotted traitor.”

Question: In Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V says, “Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, / Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from” which animal?

Answer: In Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V says, “Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, / Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse.”

Question: In Cymbeline, the banished prince Arviragus says, “We have seen nothing. We are beastly: subtle as” which animal is “for prey”?

Answer: In Cymbeline, the banished prince Arviragus says, “We have seen nothing. We are beastly: subtle as the fox for prey.”

Question: In Henry IV, Part 2, Henry IV predicts what will become of his kingdom once he is gone, saying, “O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, / Peopled with” which animals?

Answer: In Henry IV, Part 2, Henry IV predicts what will become of his kingdom once he is gone, saying, “O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, / Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!”

Question: In Richard II, King Richard says, “Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense, / But let” which creatures “that suck up thy venom, / And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way”?

Answer: In Richard II, King Richard says, “Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense, / But let thy spiders that suck up thy venom, / And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way.”

Question: In Henry VI, Part 2, which wild animal does the Duke of York say “in rage forgets / Agèd contusions and all brush of time”?

Answer: In Henry VI, Part 2, the Duke of York says, “Of Salisbury, who can report of him, / That winter lion, who in rage forgets / Agèd contusions and all brush of time.”

Question: In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet says, “Is not parchment made of” the skins of which animal?

Answer: In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet says, “Is not parchment made of sheepskins?”

Question: In Macbeth, the title character calls on the night to “cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and” which bird “makes wing to th’ rooky wood”?

Answer: In Macbeth, the title character calls on the night to “cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow / Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.”

Question: In The Merchant of Venice, the Prince of Arragon says, “Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, / Which pries not to th’ interior, but like” which bird “Builds in the weather on the outward wall”?

Answer: In The Merchant of Venice, the Prince of Arragon says, “Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach, / Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet / Builds in the weather on the outward wall.”

Question: In The Tempest, after Iris summons another goddess, Ceres, “Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, / To come and sport,” which animals serving the goddess Juno “fly amain”?

Answer: In The Tempest, Iris summons another goddess, Ceres, “Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, / To come and sport. [Juno’s] peacocks fly amain. / Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.”

Question: In Antony and Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen says, “Help me, my women! O, he’s more mad / Than Telamon for his shield.” Which animal of Thessaly does she then say “was never so emboss’d”?

Answer: In Antony and Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen says, “Help me, my women! O, he’s more mad / Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly / Was never so emboss’d.”

Question: In The Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo—with whom Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, has eloped—teasingly says that she, like which animal, “slander[ed] her love, and he forgave it her”?

Answer: In The Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo—with whom Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, has eloped—teasingly tells her, “In such a night / Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, / Slander her love, and he forgave it her.”

Question: In The Taming of the Shrew, the servant Biondello says, “I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff” which animal?

Answer: In The Taming of the Shrew the servant Biondello says, “I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit, and so may you, sir.”

Question: In The Taming of the Shrew, Gremio, a wealthy old gentleman competing for the hand of another rich man’s daughter, boasts to that man, “Then at my farm / I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail, / Six score” of which “fat” farm animal “standing in my stalls”?

Answer: In The Taming of the Shrew, Gremio, a wealthy old gentleman competing for the hand of another rich man’s daughter, boasts to that man, “Then at my farm / I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail, / Six score fat oxen standing in my stalls.”

Question: In Henry V, Henry says, “But when the blast of war blows in our ears, / Then imitate the action of” which animal?

Answer: In Henry V, Henry says, “But when the blast of war blows in our ears, / Then imitate the action of the tiger: / Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood.”

Question: In King Lear, the title character says, “To wage against the enmity o’ th’ air, / To be a comrade with the wolf and” which bird?

Answer: In King Lear, the title character says, “To wage against the enmity o’ th’ air, / To be a comrade with the wolf and owl.”

Question: In Richard II, King Richard says, “Rage must be withstood. / Give me his gage. Lions make” which wild animals “tame”?

Answer: In Richard II, King Richard says, “Rage must be withstood. / Give me his gage. Lions make leopards tame.”

Question: In Troilus and Cressida, the Greek commander Ulysses says that which animal “hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure”?

Answer: In Troilus and Cressida, the Greek commander Ulysses says, “The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.”

Question: In Henry V, the French lord Rambures says, “That island of England breeds very valiant creatures” and their dogs of what type “are of unmatchable courage”?

Answer: In Henry V, the French lord Rambures says, “That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.”