Renaissance Test
Study Guide
Mr. Hannan
To prepare for the test on out study of the English Renaissance, review the following
materials:
The Study Guide: English Renaissance, pp. 190-211
The notes you took on the lecture about sonnets and Shakespeare’s sonnet cycle
The activity sheet on Wyatt’s “Whoso List to Hunt”
Then these poems:
“Whoso List to Hunt” — 215
Shakespeare’s sonnets 18, 29, 116, 130 (activity sheet) and the notes you took as we
studied them
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” — Marlowe, 233
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” — Raleigh, 235
Also, find the answers to the following questions and then study them. They are taken
from the material you read from pages 283-296:
1. From what do some scholars think medieval English drama evolved?
2. What are miracle and mystery plays about?
3. What are morality plays about?
4. Why did Shakespeare, in Henry V, refer to the Globe theater as a “wooden O”?
5. What was a groundling, and how much did they pay to watch a play?
6. What did people expect when they went to the theater besides seeing a tragedy or
comedy?
7. What did Shakespeare write to go into almost all of his plays to satisfy this
expectation?
8. There is no actual record of Shakespeare’s birth date, but it is surmised to have been
three days before the recorded date of his baptism or Christening. What is that date?
9. How old was Shakespeare when he married? What was his wife’s maiden name and
how old was she?
10. Name Shakespeare’s children.
11. What was the name of Shakespeare’s acting company during the “years of prosperity
at the end of the 16th century?
12. What was the company’s name during the reign of King James I? Why was the name
changed?
13. How did the Globe catch fire and under what circumstances?
14. What was the date of Shakespeare’s death?
15. Who played the parts of women and girls in Shakespeare’s plays?
16. Looking through the information given on pages 290-293 about the dates of
Shakespeare’s plays, find four types of plays Shakespeare wrote during his career.
Format
Multiple Choice,
Fill in the blanks (including some important dates),
Identify passages from the Marlowe and Raleigh poems
Questions about one of Shakespeare’s sonnets (meanings of lines, etc.)
Short answer, including definitions of sonnet, the various sonnet parts, iambic
pentameter. Be able to explain the difference between the English and Italian sonnet
forms.
Value: 100 points
Test Date: _______________________________