Exam on the Renaissance

1. Elizabeth I was called the “Virgin Queen.” What was a major dynastic and political consequence of her unmarried status?

a) It led to immediate union with Scotland.
b) It created a prolonged succession crisis.
c) It caused a permanent war with France.
d) It resulted in the dissolution of the monarchy.

2. The Elizabethan compromise refers to—

a) Balance between monarchy and parliament
b) Religious settlement between Catholics and Protestants
c) Alliance with Spain
d) Peace treaty with France

3. Elizabethan drama ignored which classical rule?

a) Catharsis
b) Five-act structure
c) Three unities
d) Tragic flaw

4. Which work marks the transition from medieval to Renaissance drama?

a) Everyman
b) Doctor Faustus
c) The Spanish Tragedy
d) Gammer Gurton’s Needle

5. Female roles in Elizabethan drama were played by—

a) Women actors
b) Adult men
c) Young boys
d) Masks

6. Renaissance Humanism in Elizabethan England emphasized—

a) Divine authority
b) Classical learning and human potential
c) Religious mysticism
d) Scientific determinism

7. What was a major religious settlement established at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign?

a) The Act of Supremacy (1534)
b) The Elizabethan Religious Settlement (1559)
c) The Treaty of Westphalia
d) The Magna Carta

8. The period of Puritan rule, when theatres were closed (1642-1660), is called the:

a) Jacobean Era
b) Caroline Era
c) Interregnum
d) Restoration

9. Which poet introduced the sonnet form into English literature?

a) Edmund Spenser
b) Philip Sidney
c) Sir Thomas Wyatt
d) William Shakespeare

10. Which writer is famous for his Renaissance essays and the phrase “knowledge is power”?

a) Sir Philip Sidney
b) Francis Bacon
c) Christopher Marlowe
d) Edmund Spenser

11. Renaissance writers increasingly wrote in the:

a) Latin only
b) Greek only
c) English vernacular
d) French

12. The “Fair Youth” and “Dark Lady” are figures in:

a) Shakespeare’s plays
b) Shakespeare’s sonnets
c) Spenser’s Amoretti
d) Marlowe’s poems

13. Gorboduc was written in—

(a) 1540
(b) 1555
(c) 1561
(d) 1562

14. Queen Elizabeth I had been reigning nearly ______ years when Shakespeare was born.

(a) Six
(b) Eight
(c) Ten
(d) Twelve

15. Of all morality plays, the only one revived on modern stages in both England and America is—

(a) Mankind
(b) Hickscorner
(c) Everyman
(d) The Castle of Perseverance

16. In Heywood’s The Four P’s, a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potycary, and a Pedlar dispute as to which of them can tell the biggest—

(a) Joke
(b) Story
(c) Lie
(d) Event

17. “Marlowe’s mighty lines” first came into Elizabethan drama with—

(a) Tamburlaine
(b) Edward II
(c) Dr. Faustus
(d) None

18. Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta is a dramatic presentation of—

(a) A king
(b) A duke
(c) A scholar
(d) A Machiavellian man

19. Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy was translated into German and Dutch, and one Elizabethan dramatist is supposed to have collaborated with him. Who was he?

(a) Beaumont
(b) Fletcher
(c) Middleton
(d) Ben Jonson

20. Thomas Nash distinguished himself as a—

(a) Satirist
(b) Humorist
(c) Playwright
(d) Allegorist

21. Nash’s The Unfortunate Traveller is the first Elizabethan—

(a) Novel
(b) Romance
(c) Tragedy
(d) Comedy

22. Which work of Robert Greene gave the plot to Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale?

(a) Groat’s Worth of Wit
(b) Pandosto
(c) Orlando Furioso
(d) Friar Bacon

23. Life of Shakespeare is written by—

(a) Sidney Lee
(b) Philip Sidney
(c) Marlowe
(d) Spenser

24. Shakespeare’s First Folio was published in—

(a) 1600
(b) 1610
(c) 1620
(d) 1623

25. Benedick and Beatrice appear in—

(a) Much Ado About Nothing
(b) The Winter’s Tale
(c) The Tempest
(d) Pericles

26. Which Shakespearean tragedy is known as a tragedy of misanthropy?

(a) Hamlet
(b) King Lear
(c) Othello
(d) Timon of Athens

27. In which Shakespearean play are all guilty?

(a) Measure for Measure
(b) Twelfth Night
(c) As You Like It
(d) All’s Well That Ends Well

28. Which play of Shakespeare ends without a climax?

(a) Troilus and Cressida
(b) Antony and Cleopatra
(c) All’s Well That Ends Well
(d) Twelfth Night

29. The title A Woman Killed with Kindness is taken from a proverb quoted in

(a) King Lear
(b) The Tempest
(c) Macbeth
(d) The Taming of the Shrew

30. The Lady of Light was the nickname of

(a) Milton
(b) Donne
(c) Vaughan
(d) None