All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. A mid summer night's dream
• B. Much ado about nothing
• C. As you like it
• D. Love's labour's lost

Explanation: Among the listed plays, Love’s Labour’s Lost is generally dated earlier than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You…

• A. Gertrude
• B. Polonius
• C. Horatio
• D. Hamlet

Explanation: Polonius gives Laertes the advice, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” in Hamlet.

• A. Ferdinand
• B. Antonio
• C. Miranda
• D. Prospero

Explanation: Miranda exclaims “O brave new world” when she sees the visitors in The Tempest.

• A. Orsino
• B. Sir Andrew
• C. Sir Toby
• D. Malvolio

Explanation: Maria addresses Malvolio as being “sick of self-love” because he is vain, self-important, and convinced that Olivia may favour him.

• A. Hamlet
• B. Henry IV,Pt I
• C. The Tempest
• D. Twelfth Night

Explanation: Prospero speaks this line in The Tempest while arguing that mercy and virtue are nobler than revenge.

• A. comic figures
• B. historical figures
• C. romantic figures
• D. tragic figures

Explanation: Falstaff is chiefly remembered as one of Shakespeare’s greatest comic characters, combining wit, cowardice, exaggeration, and comic…

• A. Hamlet
• B. Twelfth Night
• C. The Tempest
• D. Henry IV, Pt I

Explanation: Falstaff says this in Henry IV, Part I when he tries to justify his cowardly escape from danger.

• A. Duke Orsino
• B. Malvolio
• C. Sir Andrew Aguecheek
• D. Sir Toby Belch

Explanation: Sir Toby Belch speaks these lines to Malvolio in Twelfth Night while defending festive pleasure against Malvolio’s puritanical…

• A. Alonso
• B. Ariel
• C. Gonzalo
• D. Stephano

Explanation: Gonzalo is Alonso's loyal and optimistic counsellor, described as an honest old councillor.

• A. The Tempest
• B. Henry IV, Pt I
• C. Hamlet
• D. Twelfth Night

Explanation: The Tempest ends with Prospero's epilogue, in which he asks the audience to release him through its applause.

• A. King Lear
• B. Gentleman
• C. King's Man
• D. None of above

Explanation: After James I came to the throne in 1603, the Lord Chamberlain's Men became the King's Men.

• A. Desdemona, Goneril and Cordelia
• B. Goneril, Ophelia and Regan
• C. Goneril, Regan and Cordelia
• D. Regan, Cordelia and Beatrice

Explanation: King Lear's three daughters are Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Desdemona, Ophelia and Beatrice belong to other Shakespearean plays.

• A. 1606
• B. 1607
• C. 1608
• D. 1609

Explanation: Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra are generally dated to 1606, placing them among Shakespeare's major tragedies of the Jacobean period.

• A. Macbeth
• B. Othello
• C. Twelfth night
• D. As you like it

Explanation: Malvolio speaks these lines in Twelfth Night while imagining that he may rise socially and win Olivia's favour.

• A. Desdemona
• B. Juliet
• C. Rosalind
• D. Hero

Explanation: Juliet speaks these lines in the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet, questioning whether Romeo's family name should define him.

• A. Leartus
• B. Polonius
• C. Forinbras
• D. Horatio

Explanation: Hamlet kills Polonius unintentionally by stabbing through the arras, believing that the hidden figure might be Claudius.

• A. Hero, Borachio, Antonio, Claudio, Leonato
• B. Hero, Orlando, Antonio, Claudio, Leanato
• C. Mirrinda, Borachio, Antonio, Claudio, Leanato
• D. Hero, Boradio, Antonio, Claudio, Horatio

Explanation: Hero, Borachio, Antonio, Claudio and Leonato all appear in Much Ado About Nothing.

• A. 1595
• B. 1996
• C. 1597
• D. 15598

Explanation: Shakespeare bought New Place, the largest house in Stratford, in 1597. The other numerical options are misspelled or historically incorrect.

• A. 1592
• B. 1593
• C. 1594
• D. 1595

Explanation: London theatres were closed during the plague outbreak beginning in 1592, and the closure continued through much of 1593.

• A. 1610
• B. 1611
• C. 1612
• D. 1613

Explanation: The Globe Theatre burned down in 1613 during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, when a cannon set the thatched roof alight.