Meet William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare on PhotoPeach

Take the quiz above to see what you already know about William Shakespeare! In a comment on this post, write something about the man many consider to be the greatest writer of all time. You can ask a question, tell us something you know about this playwright and poet, or just leave a general comment.

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55 thoughts on “Meet William Shakespeare

  1. On the quiz I guessed a lot! i knew some stuff though! I got 5 wrong which is pretty good for not knowing a lot about Shakespere!

  2. I got 8 out of 10 gusetions right.I loved doing it and I guess I know a lot about William Shakespeare.
    I had fun.

    ~Aliciahk

  3. Mrs . Donofrio,
    I love this quiz ! It is fun to see what you know about Shakespeare ! I knew most of the answers , with an exception of 1 or 2 .
    ~Hannah

  4. Hi Mrs.Donofrio! I love reading Shakespeare plays. I remember how excited you got when you were reading it made me laugh. Are we reading Romeo and Juliet. If we do i cann’t wait! If we dont i’ll read it to myself. See you later!

  5. Greetings Mrs Donofrio,
    I forgot a few of the questions so I got two or three wrong, but thanks to Mrs. Donofrio I knew mostly all of the answers. Did you know some people think Shakespeare didn’t write all of his plays? These people think Shakespeare had somone write his plays for him.
    – Cogan

  6. Did you know that the most valuable signature is William Shakespeare’s? I think it was worth about 3 million dollars and it is on his will. There is only six in existence, and it is completely the rarest. One is under a deposition, three under his will and, two under conveyance deeds. I knew this for a while now. I also got 4 wrong I think.

  7. I got all but 1 question wrong. It really shows how much you taught us last year! Reading plays was so interesting, and you made it very fun too! The way you acted parts of the plays out in class made us really understand what we were reading. I can’t wait to read Romeo and Juliet this year because I love romantic and love stories.
    ~Sadie

  8. Hey Mrs.Donofrio!
    I love reading about Shakespeare plays,they’re so interesting! I got about 3 wrong on the quiz,but it’s amazing how much I remember learning from last year!

  9. Hello Mrs. Donofrio,
    Reading shakespeare is one of my favorite literary characters that we have learned about. This year I got 5 question wrong.
    From,Jesse

  10. Mrs. Donofrio,
    I love the quiz! It was really neat and it made me regurgitate the knowledge I have about the Bard! How did you do that?
    Oh and did you know that they are making a movie of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespears plays? I can’t wait to see it. It is going to be a modern day remake.
    Truely you do see a lot of Shakespeare’s work every where you go! From quotes to words he created, I love being able to know where the information comes from.
    Thanks for helping us learn!
    ~Makenzie

    • You are welcome, Makenzie! I think it’s amazing how much Shakespeare is around us, and we don’t even know it. Did you know he created the phrase, “Knock, knock. Who’s there?” Little kids are quoting Shakespeare all over the place whenever they tell a knock knock joke.
      I didn’t know about the movie, so thanks for filling me in! It is now written into my summer plans, though. Who will be in the movie? Did you ever see the Romeo and Juliet movie with Leonardo DiCaprio? I took middle school students to see that when it first came out. All the girls gushed over Leonardo, who at that time, was not too much older than they were. Thanks for the Much Ado info!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  11. Mrs. Donofrio,
    The quiz was neat! I got five wrong but I remembered alot of the questions form last year. Learning about Shakespeare was very interesting. I thought that it was cool that he invented 2,000 words.

  12. I guess that my brain is a little bit rusty when it comes to Shakespeare. I am glad that the class read shortened versions of the plays instead of the full ones. I don’t think I would have the attention span to do that.

    • Hi Mac,
      You should read Daniela’s and Michael’s comments. They both pertain to you! Don’t worry about your rusty brain. That’s why we review. I need a can of oil for my own brain one in a while, too!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  13. Mrs. Donofrio,
    That was a really fun quiz! I thought I wouldn’t do too good, but I only got one wrong! I hope we can do more of these activities before the year is over!

    -Erin

  14. HI Mrs. Donofrio,

    I got most of the questions right on the quiz that is on here. I think it is cool that I remember all this stuff about Shakespear from 7th grade.

    -Jackson

  15. This was an awesome quiz! I got two wrong but now I know what the correct answers are. You should make more quizzes like this!
    -Christian

    • I agree, Christian. I like these quizzes, too. Perhaps I can make one to help review for final exams.
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  16. Hi, Mrs.Donofrio! This is a really cool quiz! I did pretty well on it,too. Thanks for making this awesome quiz.
    -Alexandra

  17. I loved learning about Shakespeare from you in the past years Mrs. Donofrio! One thing I learned was that William created nearly 2,000 words! And that he may or may not have had a thing for the Dark Lady. I think I only got three wrong!
    ~Jace

    • Hi Jace,
      Yes, that Dark Lady in an interesting character. Shakespeare had a bit of scandal in his life. First his father was relieved of his duty as mayor for money mishandling, then his “shotgun” wedding to an older woman, and then the Dark Lady. Good job on the quiz! I hope I can teach you something new this year.
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  18. Howdy Mrs. Donofrio,
    The quiz I just took was really fun and I got every question correct. William Shakespeare is the best. My two favorite plays by Shakespeare are Othello and Macbeth. I also think it is really cool on how Shakespeare invented over 2000 words.

    Your favorite student,
    Michael

    • Hi Michael!
      Good job on the quiz! My favorite play is Macbeth, too. I also think inventing over 2000 words is cool. I wish I could invent just one! I think Mac or Mitch invented the word “ratnuts” to use as a synonym of “drat” or “darn” or “shoot!”. They only have 1999 to go! What word would you invent?
      Your favorite teacher,
      Mrs. Donofrio

  19. Hi Mrs. Donofrio,
    The quiz was really interesting and I didn’t get any questions wrong! I liked how you included some of the plays he had written in the quiz. I really like Shakespeare and I like how we’ve done a lot of his material in class. Maybe we could read the Taming of the Shrewd this year! Have you ever thought of having us read the unabridged version of a play we’ve read?

    • Hi Daniela!
      I’d like to read The Taming of the Shrew as well. I have also thought of having the 8th grade read the full version of one of his plays. I think I have class sets of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. I do think some of the 8th graders would like to try reading Shakespeare in his own language. I’ll look at the calendar and see if we have time to undertake that before your exams and Disney trip!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  20. Hey Mrs. Donofrio!
    You’ve taught me well, i got them all right! Shakespeare has been my favorite part of English class! This quiz was fun!

  21. Hi Mrs. Donofrio,

    I remember most of the things about William Shakesheare that our class learned in six and seventh grade. I think that learning about William Shakesheare is intresting and fun.

    Sincerely,
    William Kelly

  22. Hello Mrs. Donofiro,
    Shakespeare is my favorite section in English to study and read. His plays are very fascinating, and usually involve betrayal and untrustworthy relationships with other characters. I got about 2 wrong on the whole quiz, so I guess I know the guy pretty well. Can’t wait to start learning more about him!

    Your friendly neighborhood,
    Josh

  23. That was a cool video. I think it is amazing that he made up 2000 words! I didn’t know much about him, but by guessing and using the knowledge I had, I got most of them right. He was a smart guy. Why was he away from his family so much? If he wanted to work, why did he want a family?

    • Good questions, Dia! I don’t know the answers to them, though, and I don’t think anyone else does either. Even nowadays some dads are away from their families for substantial amounts of time for work. He did stay around Stratford for about 10 years after he got married; he did visit every year; and he did return there after he retired. He also got married very young, though, so that may have something to do with his extended absence as well. I don’t think we’ll really ever know for sure. I’m glad you’re thinking, though! Asking questions is the best way to learn!
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  24. This was a really nice quiz Mrs. Donofrio. I remembered a good amount of Shakespeare from last year and I can’t wait for this year. Falstaff is one of my favorite characters because he is very humorous and and he is an interesting character.

  25. Hi Mrs Donofrio,

    I checked out the link you had posted that gave me a full description of Shakespeare’s life from beginning to end. One thing that I learned, is that Shakespeare’s literature didn’t start off sounding very intellectual at first. His first few plays didn’t have very high vocabulary in them, and was described as having “basic conversation like” vocabulary in them. It took him a little bit to start including his higher vocabulary in his plays.

    -Jackson

  26. Hi Mrs. Donofrio,
    I took this before but I didn’t leave a comment of how many I had gotten wrong. Before I got about 6 or 7 wrong. I just it again and I only missed 2.
    ~Christina

  27. Hey Mrs.D I visited Shakespeares birthplace it was pretty amazing what was there, it would be funny if i layed in his bed and think of all the plays he wrote!

    • Hi Tyson,
      It would be pretty amazing to lie in Shakespeare’s bed; I agree! What did you LEARN about Shakespeare while you visited his Birthplace Museum?
      ~Mrs. Donofrio

  28. Hi Mrs. Donofrio! I got them all correct! I guess I remember a lot from class last year because I thought I was going to fail. That was a great review for me. You should make more of those around finals to help the class review stuff we had learned earlier in the year.

  29. Hi Mrs.Donofrio,
    I liked this quiz on William Shakespeare. I knew a lot of it, but also learned some new things about the Bard.
    ~Chase

  30. Hi Mrs.Donofrio!
    For some reason this quiz won’t work on my ipad, but I will try on my computer. I have some “fun” facts about Shakespeare anyways.
    1.Shakespeare has more google pages referring to him than God does. (Shakespeare having around 157 million and God having 132 million)
    2. Shakespeare is the 2nd most quoted author. (The first being various writers of the Bible)
    3. Not only was Shakespeare controversial in his plays, his life was controversial. He married a women 8 years older (26) when she was 3 months pregnant with their child.
    I also have a question. I was reading online that Shakespear put a curse on his grave and I was wondering if he prepared that curse he wrote on his tombstone right before he was about to die or if someone made it for him?
    -Michaela

    • Hi Michaela,
      You are right about the iPad. I have tried to visit our blog on the iPad, too, and it just doesn’t work. We made videos on the iPad with the 8th grade, and we couldn’t get those onto the blog. It seems the iPad is not compatible with Edublogs. I will look into that more over the summer.

      In regard to all the Google pages and quotes, I guess it goes to show that you really can’t consider yourself well educated unless you know some Shakespeare!

      I don’t know the answer to your question about the curse; I will have to do some research about that. What I like about teaching Shakespeare is that I learn new things myself every year. This year I learned that his family crest is black and gold, that his handwritten play manuscripts are called “foul papers”, and that lots of rappers really dig Shakespeare! There is even a Hip Hop Shakespeare Company in England (London, I think). I also learned more about his birthday celebration in Stratford-on-Avon. Next year is 450 years, so we will really do it up in 2014!

      ~Mrs. Donofrio

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