Monday, May 7, 2012

Siddhartha packets due



“Man to the universe” Mark and discuss for today. Turn it in.



Pick up Macbeth from the IMC. If you couldn't pick it up today, have it by tomorrow.

Stratford Squares . We played this game in class as an introduction to William Shakespeare. A few of the concepts or facts may be on the final of Macbeth. Find the questions at the bottom of today's blog.




Reminders

Tuesday, May 8, Siddhartha final test Monday, May 14. extra credit due.

Below are questions for Stratford Squares, our version of Hollywood Squares. The possible bluffs written below each answer will give you some ideas on what you might want to say. Your goal is to get the contestant to believe your lie  or disbelieve your correct answer. The correct answer is in bold print when possible.

1.   The following words were written by Shakespeare and can be found where?     Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones.

Correct answer: Shakespeare's tombstone in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church bears this inscription, said to have been written by him

Bluff answers: You might say that it was a famous line from one of his plays.  Mention plays Titus Andromeda, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Henry V.  Say that you saw the play or that it is your favorite play.

2.  What university did William Shakespeare attend and graduate from?

Choose Your Answer: A: Oxford, B: Cambridge, C: Glasgow, D: None

Shakespeare, one of literature's greatest figures, never attended any university.

Bluff answer: say he started  at one university and finished at another. If you pick one of the other universities, say that your have always been interested in one of them and you know that they have a library with his name on it.

3) What is Shakespeare's shortest play?

Choose Your Answer: A: The Comedy of Errors, B: A Midsummer Night's Dream, C: Macbeth, D: Timon of Athens

Correct answer: Comedy of Errors with 1787 lines Macbeth is his shortest tragedy.

4) How many of Shakespeare's original manuscripts have survived?

Choose Your Answer: A: One, B: Nine, C: Thirty-Six, D: None

None of Shakespeare's original manuscripts have survived, due partly perhaps to the fact that they were written, many of them hastily, strictly for stage performance.

5. Who dies first, Romeo or Juliet or Paris?

Choose Your Answer: A: Romeo, B: Juliet, C: Paris   D: Two of them die at exactly  the same time.

Paris dies outside the tomb of Juliet before Romeo goes in to find Juiet.Bluff it any way you want. Maybe you can say that there is no Paris in this play.

6) What was the name of Shakespeare's only son?

Choose Your Answer: A: Hubert, B: Hamnet, C: Humphrey, D: Horatio

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, was born approximately two years after his parents married. He died in childhood, at the age of 11, in 1596, and was buried at Stratford. Hamnet had a twin sister named Judith who lived into adulthood. The poet and dramatist William D'Avenant (1606-68) was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Shakespeare, but there is no proof to substantiate this claim.

7. At the end of Romeo and Juliet, the Montagues say they will erect a statue of Juliet. Can such a statue be seen in the city of Verona “where we lay our scene”?

Yes or no. 

Possible bluff by saying you have visited Verona and you have either seen the statue or haven’t seen it. You could also say that it had been taken down because too many people had been touching the breast of the statue.

8) How many of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime?

Choose Your Answer: A: Two, B: 15, C: 36, D: 37   E. None

Correct answer:  None of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime--he wrote them, apparently, only to be performed. Fortunately, two of his fellow actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, gathered 36 of Shakespeare's plays and published them in 1623 in a collection that has come to be known as The First Folio. This collection is the source from which all published Shakespearean plays are derived.

9) What was the name of Shakespeare's wife?

Choose Your Answer:

 A: Helena,Hayes   B: Mary   C: Anne,Hathaway  D: Rosaline Montressor    E. Juliet Lewis

Correct answer:  In 1582, at the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway who was seven or eight years older than the young playwright. That was before she wore Prada.

10) What actor first created the roles of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Richard III?

Choose Your Answer:  A: James Burbage, B: Richard Burbage, C: Cuthbert Burbage, D: Edward Alleyn

Richard Burbage, the son of theatrical entrepreneur James Burbage, was one of the most famous actors of his day. He was the first actor to play many of Shakespeare's most famous parts, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Richard III. He remained a member of the Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) until his death in 1619. Possible bluff: Who the heck cares? Then pick one.

11) Which role is Shakespeare said to have played in the original production of Hamlet?

Choose Your Answer:    A: Hamlet,     B: Laertes,   C: The Gravedigger,   D: The Ghost

Shakespeare is said to have played the Ghost in the original production of Hamlet.

12. The Black Plague that struck England during Shakespeare's lifetime around 1603 killed how many people?

300,       3300,        33,000        300,000.      3 million?

Shakespeare lived through the Black Death, an epidemic of bubonic plague that killed over 33,000 people in

London in 1603 and later returned in 1608. The plague was spread by fleas and rats.

13.  The story of Pocahontas story is an adaptation of which Shakespeare play?

Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Nights Dream, The Tempest,  Titus Andronicus

Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into all sorts of different contexts including the Pocahontas story: American Charlotte Barnes, for example, adapted The Tempest in her 1844 play The Forest Princess, which retells the story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith.

14 What was the date of Shakespeare's birth, exactly?

            April 23, 1564

Possibly bluff by keeping the April 23rd, but changing the year. Say that you have always remembered it because it was the same day of the year as your birthday

15. Shakespeare was born in a town called Stratford on Avon, or sometimes called Stratford Upon Avon. What is Avon?

 A county?     A mountain?          A lake?           A river?

16  How old was Shakespeare when he got married?    18

17. How old was Shakespeare's wife Anne when they got married?  26 years old.

18. How old was Shakespeare when he became a father?

 He was 19 years old.

19. At the age of twenty, after two years of marriage, how  many children did Shakespeare have?

  Three. At 19 he became a father; at 20 he became the father of twins. They had no more children.

20  Which of the following was not the name of one of Shakespeare's three children?        Susanna;    William, Junior;   Hamnet,    Judith

21. Mr.  Stanford Williams lives in California and he says that he is a living descendant of William Shakespeare. Could this be  true or need it be  false?

The answer is false because there are no living descendants today.  To bluff :you might say false because  no descendants of Shakespeare can receive royalties from his plays if they live outside England. 

Or you could bluff by saying true because his family changed their last name because of all the people who would bug them for artifacts of their famous ancestor, even in America.

22 How many plays did Shakespeare write?

  He wrote 37.

23  Of Shakespeare’s  37 plays, 14 were comedies, 11 were histories, and 12 were tragedies.  True or False?

True. Bluff by saying false, “Most of his plays were tragedies, just think about it;”

or trick by being honest and say true: that most people think his tragedies outnumber his comedies because so many of the tragedies are covered in school.

24. How old was Shakespeare when he died?     Answer: 52. He died in 1616.

25. Shakespeare’s father was a respected member of the community of Stratford on Avon,. He was a public official, landowner, and a businessman. His business was making and selling a particular item of clothing worn by both men and women. What was it?

Answer: gloves.

Possible bluffs: shoes, hats, socks, scarves, ear muffs.

26. Was William wealthy or poor when he died?

He was wealthy. Bluff by saying he lost his money  when the plague ravaged the population and none went to the theatre for fear of contagion.

27 In the famous line “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” what does wherefore mean?     why,    how,    where , for what reason?

Most people think it means ‘where are you,Romeo?’,  but it actually means ‘why are you Romeo?’ You might bluff by saying you were in the play in ninth grade ao you had to learn this scene.

28. In the theater during Shakepeare’s time, certain people were known by the name of groundlings. Why?

True answer: Groundlings stood on the ground in front of the stage to watch the play. They paid the lowest ticket price and  were known for their drinking and rowdy behavior.

Possible bluff: Groundlings were the people who took care of the grounds and set up everything for the plays. Today we might call them roadies.

29. Without rounding, and in years, how old is Juliet when the play with her name begins?

True answer, she is 13; she will be fourteen in a few weeks, so the answer is 13.Her birthday was July 31^st, we can tell from the play.

Bluff:  Most people know that she was only fourteen and that people got married young back then.

30. The play “Romeo and Juliet” involves a feud between two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. From which family  is Juliet?

True answer: the Capulets.

31. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write, not counting those within plays?

True answer: 154.

Possible Bluff: Say he wrote one for every year of his life: 52.

32. Who was queen of England during most of William’s life?

Was it   Queen Mary,II,  Queen Anne, Queen Latifa,  Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, trick question, King Henry VIII

33. Who was the King in the later years of Shakespeare’s life?

King Henry ViIII, King James, King Edward, King Kong, King Richard III,, King Lear?

You might bluff on this by giving the correct answer but saying that Lebron James is called King James because of this.

34. Romeo and Juliet takes about two hours to perform. How much time transpires i the play?  Is it four hours, four days, four weeks, four months or four years?

You might add to your bluff by saying that you were in the play in eighth grade.

35. Which Shakespeare play is so popular that it is probably being performed somewhere on stage at this very moment?

Hamlet is the correct answer. Other possible bluffs are Romeo and Juliet (who hasn’t seen it?)  Macbeth , Much Ado About Nothing (there is much ado about this play), King Lear

36.  In Shakespeare’ day, a city wall ran around three sides of London. What was on the fourth side?

The River Thames. Other bluffs might be a lake, a moat, a cliff down to the sea, a hill, Buckingham Palace. You might bluff by saying you were there two years ago and that your answer is still on the fourth side of the city.

37. Today we typically eat dinner with a knife,e a fork, and a spoon; in Shakespeare’s day, one of these had only just been invented and was not in common use.

Correct answer is fork. It had been invented in Italy and was not commonly used in England at this time.

Possible bluff: This is a trick question. All three utensils were in common use at this time, but only the King was allowed to use a knife at the dinner table. Say you did a report on it in seventh grade.

38. Were flush toilets in existence in Shakespeare's day?

Yes, but most people used a chamber pot.  Bluff by saying that the flush toilet was not invented until years late by John Crapper.

39. Bullbaiting, bearbaiting, and “the horse and ape” were sports involving animal fights  on which men would bet.  What animal is involved in each of these sports?

Correct answer: Dog.

Bluff: Bears were used in all of these, but they were just different versions of the same game. For example, bullbaiting was just a male bear.

40, If you were to pass through the south gate of the London Bridge in Shakepseare’s day,  why wouldn't you want to look up?

You would see several poles sticking up into the air with the good chance of shriveled heads of those people executed for high treason.

Possible bluffs: It was the naughty lady part of town,

   People through the contents of their chamber pots out the window.

  It was considered unlucky because that is where Anne Boleyn lost her head.

41. Women who were accused of witchcraft were strapped to  a ducking stool and plunged into water. How would you know if they were not a witch?

If they were drowned, they were not a witch. If they survived, they were a witch so they would be executed.

42. At the beginning of a play, Romeo is in love with whom?

Rosaline.

Of course the obvious bluff is to say Juliet.

43.   The Bard's will gave most of his property to Susanna, his first child, and not to his wife Anne Hathaway. Instead his loyal wife infamously received his "second-best bed".  Why did she not get the best bed?

The Bard's second best bed wasn’t so bad, it was his marriage bed; his best bed was for guests.

Bluff by saying that he didn’t give his best bed because she was having an affair with someone named Susanna and she was given the best bed.

44. Even though Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, Shakespeare was morally against it and only had one suicide occur in any of his other 36 plays. True or false?

Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare’s plays. It occurs in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus’ wife Portia, in Othello where Othello stabs himself, in Hamlet where Ophelia is said to have "drowned" in suspicious circumstances, in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth dies, and finally in Antony and Cleopatra where suicide occurs an astounding five times (Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Eros).