Name______________________________ Date__________
Shakespeare Online Scavenger Hunt and
Exploration – How fun is that?!?
You will explore various websites as well as use web sites to answer the following questions to learn (or to
learn more) about Shakespeare: his life his works, the Globe theatre, and his play Romeo and Juliet. Sometimes
the question has a link attached to it. If not, use the bank of Website Bank below.
Realize, pah-lease, that a scavenger hunt is just that – a hunt! You can be led to the website, but the answer will
not always pop up as if it is being handed to you on a silver platter. You will need to read, look, search, discern
the relevant information from the irrelevant – simply put – USE YOUR BRAIN to find (hunt for) information.
Sometimes, the task is not so much to answer a question as it is for you to state your opinion. Follow all
directions and you will be a successful, learned student. Some questions have more than one part – read
carefully.
Website Bank
(remember, use this if the questions or directives do not have a link or tell which site to use)
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/
www.folger.edu
www.bardweb.net/
www.shakespeare-online.com/
http://absoluteshakespeare.com/
www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-first-folio.htm
www.bardweb.net/globe.html
www.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/movies/sound_globe.swf
Task 1
Answer the following questions about Shakespeare’s life:
1) Traditionally, what is Shakespeare’s date of birth and birthplace?
2) Who was Shakespeare’s father and what did he do?
3) Who was his mother
4) What type of things did Shakespeare most probably study in grammar school?
5) What is the name of Shakespeare’s wife and when did they get married?
6) How many children did they have and what were their names?
7) Was Shakespeare an actor as well as a poet and playwright? Explain.
8) In 1594, Shakespeare joined what theatre company? What did that theatre company change its name to?
9) Who was England’s Queen during the majority of Shakespeare’s life?
10) In what region is Stratford-on-Avon located?
11) What war occurred in Shakespeare's time and why was it fought?
12) Name one contemporary (someone who lived at the same time) of Shakespeare. When did he/she live?
What did he/she do?
13) What was the name of the theatre that Shakespeare worked in?
14) When did Shakespeare die and what was inscribed on his tomb?
15) What was going on politically, culturally and historically during Shakespeare’s life? List five interesting
facts.
Task 2
Answer the following questions about Shakespeare’s works:
16) Who felt like an actor was not qualified to be a writer...(he called Shakespeare an "upstart crow")?
17) Roughly, how old was Shakespeare when he wrote his first play?
18) How many plays and sonnets did Shakespeare write?
19) What three types of drama did Shakespeare write?
20) Shakespeare wrote many of his works in iambic pentameter. Define what that means.
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mwh95001/iambic.html
21) What is the First Folio?
22) Who owned the plays that Shakespeare wrote?
23) Why do you think that they were not considered to be Shakespeare's property?
24) List two famous Shakespearean quotes other than, “To be or not to be,--that is the question...,” “O
Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?,” or “Et tu, Brute.”
25) Which of Shakespeare’s plays has had the most film and television adaptations?
26) Find the year in which the first Romeo and Juliet may have been written.
27) Identify two types of endings presented in Romeo and Juliet.
28) In what year did the first female actresses appear on stage?
Task 3
Explore and answer the following questions about The Globe:
29) When was the Globe first built?
30) When did it burn? During what play?
31) The Globe Theater was built for what group of actors?
32) In what year was The Globe first rebuilt?
33) Who closed the Globe? In what year?
34) How large was the original Globe? (diameter)
35) How were the dimensions of the original Globe agreed upon by historians? And what was its shape?
36) What were the best seats in the house at the original Globe Theatre?
37) What did Shakespeare refer to the Globe Theater as?
38) By taking a tour of the Globe Theater, do you think the best place to view the play would be on the floor in front
of the stage, the 2nd floor, or the 3rd floor? Why?
39) What was the cellar underneath the stage referred to?
40) What is a groundling? What did the groundlings do during the play?
41) What kept the "groundlings" from sitting in the gallery without paying an extra penny?
42) What are the pillars that hold up the "heavens" made of?
43) How many people can stand in the "yard?"
44) What is stored in the attic?
45) What two gods are painted on the sides of the stage? Why those two gods?