GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of British Plays to 1660

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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Example Questions

Example Question #11 : Identification Of British Plays To 1660

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,
That makes ingrateful man!

The above lines are taken from which Shakespearean play?

Possible Answers:

Hamlet

A Winter’s Tale

Titus Andronicus

Othello

King Lear

Correct answer:

King Lear

Explanation:

This well-known monologue is from King Lear (1606), one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Over the course of the drama, the eponymous king grows steadily more insane after casting out his most loving daughter, Cordelia, based on the advice of his other two children. The play is especially renowned for its nuanced depiction of human suffering, madness, and familial bonds.

Example Question #12 : Identification Of British Plays To 1660

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? 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 appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties 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. No, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?

From which Shakespeare play is this monologue taken?

Possible Answers:

Macbeth

A Midsummer Night's Dream

King Lear

Hamlet

Romeo and Juliet

Correct answer:

Hamlet

Explanation:

Although not as famous as the “To be or not to be” monologue, this excerpt is one of Hamlet’s better known soliloquies from the eponymous play. In it, he agonizes about the correct course of action to avenge his dead father, the former king of Denmark.

Adapted from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare II.ii.1632-1646 (1603)

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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