MV Quiz                      

Write the speaker’s name next to each quotations.

1. The quality of mercy is not strained.            

      It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

      Upon the place beneath.  It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

2.                                       All things that are      

            Are with more spirit chasèd than enjoyed.

            How like a younger or a prodigal

            The scarfèd bark puts from her native bay,

            Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!

3.  Hath not a Jew eyes?  Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?  Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

4.   A pound of man’s flesh taken from a man   

            Is not so estimable, profitable neither,

            As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.  I say

            To buy his favor I extend this friendship.

5.   I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so.       

      Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil

      Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.

      But fare thee well.  There is a ducat for thee.

6. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for

A thing not in his power to bring to pass,

But swayed and fashioned by the hand of heaven.

Was this inserted to make interest good?

Or is your gold and sliver ewes and rams?

7. In Belmont is a lady richly left;                    

And she is fair and, fairer than that word,

Of wondrous virtues.  Sometime from her eyes

I did receive fair speechless messages.                                   

8. In what language did Shakespeare write The Merchant of Venice?
   1. Old English.
   2. Middle English.
   3. Early Modern English.
   4. Modern English.

9. Bassanio’s interest in Portia is purely financial; he is a gold digger.
   1. True.
   2. False.

10. Choose one of the following and explain it in a few sentences:
    1.  Lancelot Gobbo (the closest thing MV has to a fool) plays a thematically important role in the play.
    2. Venturing is an important concept in the play.
    3. Prodigality is an important concept in the play.