Apparently, I write tough trivia.

[netquiddler]

So I help out at the local bar, writing one themed round of trivia for the weekly trivia contest.  I offer three possible rounds a week, and just roll forward the two that aren't used.

This week, we ended up doing the Shakespeare category.  This got me gripes, because apparently I write the questions too hard.  You guys tell me.  I present the round.

1. Shakespeare’s plays were often written in iambic pentameter. How many syllables are there in a standard line of iambic pentameter?


2. In which of Shakespeare’s plays can one find the title character lamenting, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”


3. What 1999 film starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew?


4. In the backstage world of theatre, one of the Bard’s plays is cursed. Which play is often referred to as “The Scottish Play” to avoid saying its name aloud?


5. The line “All the world’s a stage” from As You Like It might be a reference to what London theatre, home to Lord Chamberlain’s Men?


6. Upon his death, pianist Andre Tchaikowsky donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for the use in productions of what play?


7. The name of what character from The Merchant of Venice has become a verb, meaning to lend money at exorbitant rates?


8. The Bard wrote many plays about kings. Who is the only Shakespearean title character that is a queen?


9. Rupert Everett and Michelle Pfeiffer played the king and queen of fairies in the 1999 film version of what Shakespeare play?


10. Romeo and Juliet is one of the Bard’s most famous plays. Name the households to which the two young lovers belong.

You tell me, was it too difficult?

Comments

[synonym4shedog.livejournal.com]

Wow, yes, not easy as in obvious easy, but totally fair for an average trivia quiz.

[parenthetically, I was once asked to design a very tough trivia list for a Mensa event. The deal was that the person with the most right answers and the person with the funniest answers would each win a prize.

It was so tough that only two people even tried doing it, and both of them aimed for "funniest." However, one of the two entrants inadvertently answered one of the questions correctly. ("What is the relationship, if any, between electronic music pioneer Walter Carlos and electronic music performer Wendy Carlos?") -- so we were able to give out both prizes :D]

Well, DANG

[synonym4shedog.livejournal.com]

Read the questions to Himself, and realized that I had answered the first question incorrectly. I'm so used to referring to the number of stresses in a line that it didn't occur to me to count all of the syllables, which was what you asked for.

M said 10, FTW.

*walks away grumbling, "Smart ass."*

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I'm unsure of 8, and I have no idea about the modern movie in 3, but the rest are easy to think-five-seconds.

If people complain, just threaten them with Pinter.

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

To butt in two years later - I find this easy. And then I cry, because I'm a Shakespeare nerd in a land where people are taught to fear his works as "Old English".

Now I've got the prologue to R&J in my head.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

I think our best team scored a four out of eleven that night.

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

Now I'm just depressed.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

No surprise, most of the right answers were to #3 and #9.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

Just curious, would you have gotten all eleven answers right?

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

1. 10 (when stressed, high class characters break verse, low-class characters tend not to speak in verse at all, unless attempting to imitate/respect higher class)
2. Richard III
3. 10 Things I Hate About You.
4. Look, I can't say that. I'm in a show right now. It's got witches.
5. Globe
6. Hamlet
7. Shylock
8. Cleopatra
9. Midsummer
10. Capulet and Montague.

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear - done without Google, or even my many complete works.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

And this is where I think your team would have scored 22 on the round. We allowed for the doubling of a round of the team's choice, and I'm sure this round would have been doubled.

Of course, the question is how quickly a team would select a category named "YOU SPOONY BARD!" - it sat there for two and a half months.

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

Sweet.

I hang out with actors. Anything that remotely smells of theatre is the one we grab.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

May as well ask, you mentioned you were in a production right now - which one is it? North Jersey and New York City aren't that far away.

[julephenia.livejournal.com]

I just finished a two week run of Prometheus Bound in NYC. About to start a small part in a one act grouping, going up sometime in July. Not sure on the details yet. All in NYC.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

Ah.

By the way, since you're a Harry Potter fan, it seems... these videos are for you.