Seamus Cooney

The grammar of Shakespearean English

This is a quiz to let you test your grasp of the grammar of early modern English, the language of Shakespeare and of much pre-modern poetry.

1. In the following line from Sonnet 18

   	Shall I compare _______ to a summer's day?
   

   which of the following should fill the blank?
   1. thou
   2. thee
   3. thyself

2. In the following line from The Tempest (III.ii.44)

    	 Thou ________, thou jesting monkey thou!
   

   which of the following should fill the blank?
   1. lies
   2. lieth
   3. liest
   4. lie

3. In these lines from Hamlet, which of the choices should fill in the blank in Hamlet's reply?

        QUEEN: Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
               I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
       HAMLET: I shall in all my best obey _____, madam. 
   

   1. you
   2. thee
   3. ye

4. What I'm here calling for simplicity's sake "Shakespearean English" is also used by many other and later writers, especially poets. In the following lines by Gerard Manley Hopkins,

   	Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
   	How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou ______
   	Defeat, thwart me? 

   which of the following should fill the blank?
   1. didst
   2. dost
   3. art