English Literature GRE Study Guide
Introduction Print Resources Practice Exams Online Resources Who Made This Page?
General
Author Index
Literary Terms
Literary Theory
World Literature
Grammar
Time Periods
1. Middle Ages
2. 16th Century
3. Early 17th Century
4. Restoration
5. 18th C: Pope & Swift
6. 18th C: Enlightenment

7. Early Romantic

8. Middle Romantic
9. Late Romantic
10. Early British Victorian
11.Transcendentalism
12. Realism
13. British Modernism
14. American Modernism
15. British Postmodernism
16. Amer. Postmodernism

 

16th Century : William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's works are very commonly on the GRE. You should be able to distinguish Shakespearean sonnets from other sonnet forms. You should recognize the characters, setting, and plots of his major plays.

Shakespeare Quiz

Identify the Play each quote is from

1. "[T]his thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine."

Tempest
Othello
MacBeth
Richard II

2. "Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever."

Henry IV, Part I
King Lear
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet

 

3. "All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages"

Hamlet
Othello
Tempest
As You Like It

4. "Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame.
And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done."

Richard II
Henry IV, Part I
Othello
King Lear

5. "Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,
As 't were a careless trifle."

Othello
Richard II

Romeo and Juliet
MacBeth

Identify which play the following characters are from

6. Sir John Falstaff

As You Like It
King Lear
Richard II
Henry IV, Part I

 

7. Miranda and Prospero

As You Like It
The Tempest
King Lear
Richard II

 

8. Goneril

As You Like It
Romeo and Juliet
The Tempest
King Lear

 

9. King Duncan of Scotland

King Lear
Richard II
MacBeth
Othello

 

10. Ganymede

As You Like It
King Lear
MacBeth
Henry IV, Part I

 

Score =

You missed question(s):

 

Format and code for quiz "borrowed" from Hardy Hansen's "Classical Origins of Western Culture" website

Code originally from Timothy Shortell's Sociology 19 website (2/99)

academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu

 

   

©2006 Laura Arnold LeibmanDept. of EnglishReed College IntroductionPrint ResourcesPractice ExamsOnline ResourcesWho Made This Page?