English 3306: Shakespeare's Major Works

Mid-term Exam-B Summer 2000

Answer each of the following questions in your blue examination book. Generally, questions should be answered in short paragraphs. Be brief but complete. Note that all questions are not of equal value.

  1. Describe three ways in which the character of Falstaff is different in Henry IV,part 1 from his role in The Merry Wives of Windsor. (9 points)
  2. Who speaks the following lines? What is the play? What are the circumstances? Essentially, what is the character saying? (8 points)

What would he do

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,

Make mad the guilty and appall the free,

Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed

The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak

Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause

And can say nothing--

  1. Who were the editors of Shakespeare's First Folio? When was the Folio published? What is the significance of this literary event? (9 points)
  2. What play do the following lines appear in and who is the speaker? Explain the circumstances and the meaning. (8 points)

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To smother up his beauty from the world,

That when he please again to be himself,

Being wanted he may be more wondered at

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

  1. The overriding issue in Hamlet is the prince's procrastination. Briefly outline three explanations for this hesitancy and delay. (12 points)
  2. Do you see similarities between Henry IV, part 1 and Hamlet? Briefly describe the common elements shared by these two plays. (6 points)
  3. What play do the following lines appear in and who is the speaker? Explain the circumstances and the meaning. (6 points)

For Harry, now I do not speak to

thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not

in words only, but in woes also. And yet there is a virtuous man

whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.

  1. If you were the director of The Merry Wives of Windsor and you were selecting members of the cast, what kind of women would you look for as Mistress Page and Mistress Ford? How would they differ? (5 points)
  2. Name three sources Shakespeare used in writing Henry IV, part 1. (6 points)
  3. What play do the following lines appear in and who is the speaker? What are the circumstances and meaning of the lines? (6 points)

Alas, how is't with you,

That you do bend your eye on vacancy,

And with th'incorporal air do hold discourse?

Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,

And, as the sleeping soldiers in th'alarm,

Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,

Start up and stand on end.

  1. Describe three ways in which The Merry Wives of Windsor is not typical of Shakespeare's more famous comedies. (12 points)
  2. Henry IV, part 1 is one play in a tetrology of history plays. What other plays are in this group? (6 points)
  3. Name the two reigning British monarchs during the years Shakespeare was writing and acting in plays. (4 points)
  4. Who speaks the following lines? What is the meaning? (3 points)

There's a special provi-

dence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If

it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will

come. The readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he

leaves, what is't to leave betimes.

Bonus Question: Name Shakespeare's wife. How old was Shakespeare when he married? (2 points)