I ran a pub quiz a few years back where I put in a single Shakespeare question — "What is the name of Romeo's surname?" — and watched a table of six adults argue for three full minutes about whether it was Montague or Capulet. One of them was a secondary school English teacher. She went with Capulet. The look on her face when I read out the answer was something I still think about. That's the thing about Shakespeare: everyone has studied him, everyone thinks they remember him, and almost everyone is slightly wrong about at least one thing.
Shakespeare is genuinely unusual quiz territory because the surface layer of knowledge is enormous — almost everyone in the UK has read at least one play at school — but that familiarity breeds a very specific kind of overconfidence. People confuse which character says which famous line. They muddle up which play a plot belongs to. They're absolutely certain that "To be or not to be" comes from Macbeth. It doesn't. He also generates proper debate at the quiz table: was he really the author? Which is the best play? Is A Midsummer Night's Dream a comedy or something darker? Good quiz topics create conversation, and Shakespeare delivers that every single time.
This post has 50 questions split across five rounds. We're covering the tragedies first, then the comedies, then characters and quotes (the round where overconfident people come unstuck), then Shakespeare's life and times, and finally the histories and sonnets — a pairing that tends to catch people off guard but works beautifully together. There's something in here for a gentle family quiz and something to properly test your local Shakespeare Society.
One practical note: these questions work best when you mix the rounds rather than run them in order, if your audience skews towards literature enthusiasts. The tragedies and comedies back-to-back can feel a bit like a GCSE paper. Split them up with the life round in the middle and you'll keep the energy up. Also — and I say this from experience — always read the fun facts aloud. They spark the best arguments.
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Round 1: The Tragedies
This is the round people think they'll ace, and then they don't. The tragedies are the most-studied Shakespeare plays in British schools, which means players carry a lot of half-remembered detail — the kind that gets you close to the right answer but not quite there. Watch out for question 7 in particular; it trips up more people than any other question I've tested.
1. In which city does the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet take place?
✓ Verona
💡 Shakespeare never visited Italy, yet set more than a dozen of his plays there — drawing on translated Italian tales for his plots.
2. Name the Scottish king that Macbeth murders in order to take the throne.
✓ King Duncan
💡 The real King Duncan I was killed in battle by Macbeth in 1040 — Shakespeare's version is far more dramatic and less historically accurate.
3. In Hamlet, what is the name of Hamlet's father's ghost?
✓ King Hamlet (also known as the Ghost of Hamlet's father — accept King Hamlet)
💡 The ghost speaks 83 lines in Act 1, making him one of Shakespeare's more talkative supernatural beings.
4. Which Shakespeare tragedy features the characters Iago, Desdemona, and Cassio?
✓ Othello
💡 Iago is one of Shakespeare's longest roles by word count, speaking nearly 1,100 lines across the play.
5. In King Lear, how many daughters does Lear have?
✓ Three (Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia)
💡 Lear's decision to divide his kingdom based on flattery is thought to draw on the real case of Sir Brian Annesley and his daughters.
6. True or false: in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the three witches are referred to in the text as "the Weird Sisters".
✓ True
💡 "Weird" here derives from the Old English "wyrd," meaning fate or destiny — not strange or odd as modern readers assume.
7. Who kills Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet?
✓ Tybalt
💡 Mercutio is neither a Montague nor a Capulet — his death is what tips Romeo from peace-keeper to avenger in a single scene.
8. In which Shakespeare tragedy does the character Ophelia drown?
✓ Hamlet
💡 Ophelia's death is reported, not shown — Shakespeare leaves the audience to debate whether it was suicide or accident.
9. Name the Roman general who is the title character in what is often considered Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy, featuring a pie filled with human remains.
✓ Titus Andronicus
💡 Titus Andronicus contains at least 14 deaths, multiple amputations, and a rape — it was enormously popular with Elizabethan audiences.
10. At the end of Macbeth, who kills Macbeth and becomes King of Scotland?
✓ Macduff
💡 Macduff was "from his mother's womb untimely ripped" — born by caesarean section — which fulfils the witches' prophecy against Macbeth.
Round 2: The Comedies
Here's where things get interesting, because the comedies are genuinely less well-known than the tragedies in a pub quiz context — but they contain some of Shakespeare's cleverest writing and most quotable lines. Don't assume this round will be easier than Round 1. It won't be, unless you have a proper theatre-goer at your table.
11. Which Shakespeare comedy features the mechanicals, including a character called Bottom who is briefly given the head of a donkey?
✓ A Midsummer Night's Dream
💡 Bottom's transformation is caused by Puck, using a flower's juice — the same flower used to make Titania fall in love with him.
12. In The Merchant of Venice, what does Shylock demand as his bond if the loan is not repaid?
✓ A pound of flesh
💡 Portia defeats Shylock's claim with a legal loophole: the bond says flesh but not blood, making it impossible to collect.
13. Name the romantic comedy in which the characters Beatrice and Benedick famously spar with each other before eventually falling in love.
✓ Much Ado About Nothing
💡 Beatrice is often cited as one of Shakespeare's most modern female characters — sharp, independent, and unwilling to be silenced.
14. In which play does the cross-dressing heroine Viola disguise herself as a young man called Cesario?
✓ Twelfth Night
💡 Twelfth Night was almost certainly first performed on 2 February 1602 — Candlemas, not Twelfth Night itself.
15. Which comedy ends with four couples getting married simultaneously and includes the characters Touchstone, Jaques, and Rosalind?
✓ As You Like It
💡 "All the world's a stage" is spoken by the melancholic Jaques in As You Like It — not by any of the heroic or romantic leads.
16. In The Taming of the Shrew, what is the name of the "shrew" who is tamed by Petruchio?
✓ Katherina (also accepted: Katherine or Kate)
💡 The 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, set in an American high school.
17. Which Shakespeare comedy features the twin siblings Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck?
✓ Twelfth Night
💡 Shakespeare himself had twins — Hamnet and Judith — born in February 1585. Hamnet died aged eleven.
18. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, what are the names of the two young men who both fall in love with Helena after Puck's intervention?
✓ Lysander and Demetrius
💡 Before Puck's meddling, both men loved Hermia — the sudden switch to Helena is what creates the central comedic chaos of the play.
19. True or false: The Winter's Tale is classified as a comedy in the First Folio.
✓ False — it is classified as a comedy but is now generally categorised as a romance or tragicomedy. Accept false.
💡 The First Folio divided plays into Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies only — the category of "romances" was invented by later scholars.
20. In which Shakespeare comedy does the pompous character Malvolio famously wear yellow stockings and cross-garters?
✓ Twelfth Night
💡 Malvolio is tricked into wearing yellow stockings because Maria knows his mistress Olivia cannot stand the colour.
Round 3: Characters & Quotes
Right, this is the round that separates the people who've read Shakespeare from the people who've watched the film adaptations and assumed it's close enough. Misattributed quotes are the biggest pitfall here — I've included a couple of questions designed specifically to exploit that. Don't say I didn't warn you.
21. Complete this quote from Hamlet: "To be, or not to be, ___________."
✓ "that is the question"
💡 This soliloquy begins Act 3, Scene 1 — not at the start of the play as many people assume. Hamlet has already seen the ghost by this point.
22. Which character in Macbeth delivers the line "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"?
✓ Lady Macbeth
💡 Lady Macbeth speaks this while sleepwalking, obsessively washing invisible blood from her hands — a sign of her psychological collapse.
23. "Et tu, Brute?" is a famous line from which Shakespeare play?
✓ Julius Caesar
💡 The historical Caesar's last words, if he spoke any, are unknown — Suetonius suggested the Greek phrase "καὶ σύ, τέκνον" (you too, child).
24. In Romeo and Juliet, who speaks the line "A plague on both your houses!"?
✓ Mercutio
💡 Mercutio says it three times as he is dying — a curse that arguably comes true, given every subsequent death in the play.
25. Which Shakespeare character says: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"?
✓ Queen Gertrude (in Hamlet)
💡 "Protest" here means "solemnly declare," not object — Gertrude thinks the player queen is overdoing her vows of faithfulness.
26. Name the Shakespeare play in which the character Shylock appears.
✓ The Merchant of Venice
💡 Shylock speaks the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech in Act 3 — one of the earliest pleas for equal humanity in English literature.
27. Which character in A Midsummer Night's Dream says: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"?
✓ Puck (Robin Goodfellow)
💡 Puck speaks this line in Act 3 after watching four Athenian lovers make a complete mess of their romantic lives due to his own meddling.
28. In which play does the character Prospero appear, and what does he control using his magic staff?
✓ The Tempest — he controls the weather and spirits (accept: magic/supernatural forces)
💡 The Tempest is thought to be the last play Shakespeare wrote entirely alone, making Prospero's farewell to magic feel deeply personal.
29. Who is the title character in Shakespeare's tragedy that includes the lines: "I am not in a jealous disposition; but I am jealous of my honour"? The character is a Moorish general in the Venetian army.
✓ Othello
💡 Othello is one of Shakespeare's few Black protagonists — a hero whose downfall is engineered entirely by the racism and envy surrounding him.
30. True or false: the phrase "All that glitters is not gold" originates in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
✓ True
💡 The line appears in a note inside a golden casket chosen by the Prince of Morocco — Shakespeare wrote "glitters," not "glisters" as is sometimes misquoted.
Round 4: Shakespeare's Life
This is the round where literature fans often crumble, because it's not about the plays at all — it's about the man, his biography, and his world. The facts here are more contested than you'd think, and I've deliberately included a couple of questions where the answer isn't what popular culture suggests. Be precise with your answers on this one.
31. In which English town was William Shakespeare born?
✓ Stratford-upon-Avon
💡 Shakespeare's baptism is recorded on 26 April 1564 — his exact birth date is unknown, though tradition assigns it as 23 April, St George's Day.
32. What was the name of the London theatre company with which Shakespeare was most closely associated as a playwright, actor, and part-owner?
✓ The Lord Chamberlain's Men (later known as The King's Men)
💡 The company became The King's Men in 1603 when King James I took them under royal patronage — a significant boost to their prestige.
33. In which year was the Globe Theatre originally built on the south bank of the Thames?
✓ 1599
💡 The timber used to build the Globe was taken from an earlier theatre called The Theatre — literally dismantled and carted across the river.
34. What was the name of Shakespeare's wife, whom he married in 1582 when he was 18 and she was 26?
✓ Anne Hathaway
💡 Shakespeare famously left Anne only his "second-best bed" in his will — scholars still argue about whether this was an insult or a tradition.
35. How many plays are generally attributed to Shakespeare in the First Folio, published in 1623?
✓ 36 plays
💡 Pericles was excluded from the First Folio but is now widely accepted as Shakespeare's work — bringing the commonly cited total to 37 or 38.
36. Name the two fellow actors and friends who compiled and published the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays after his death.
✓ John Heminges and Henry Condell
💡 Without Heminges and Condell, around half of Shakespeare's plays — including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest — might have been lost forever.
37. True or false: Shakespeare attended Oxford University.
✓ False — there is no evidence Shakespeare attended any university
💡 Shakespeare likely attended the King's New School in Stratford, where Latin grammar and classical literature were core parts of the curriculum.
38. In which year did Shakespeare die, and what is notable about that date in relation to his birth?
✓ He died in 1616, on 23 April — the same date traditionally given as his birthday, making him 52 years old
💡 23 April is also St George's Day — England's patron saint's day — giving Shakespeare's life a neat, almost mythological symmetry.
39. What name is given to the period roughly between 1585 and 1592 during which there are no known records of Shakespeare's whereabouts or activities?
✓ The Lost Years (also accept: The Dark Years)
💡 Theories about the Lost Years include Shakespeare working as a schoolteacher, a lawyer's clerk, or even travelling in Europe — none are proven.
40. Which of Shakespeare's plays is believed to have been written first — The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, or A Midsummer Night's Dream?
✓ The Comedy of Errors (written around 1589–1594, before the other two)
💡 The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare's shortest play — a fast-paced farce about mistaken identity involving two sets of identical twins.
Round 5: Histories & Sonnets
This is the round that most quiz nights skip entirely, which is a shame — the history plays are full of extraordinary material, and the sonnets contain some of the most misunderstood lines in the English language. Question 48 in particular tends to produce very confident wrong answers, so pay attention.
41. Which Shakespeare history play begins with the famous line: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York"?
✓ Richard III
💡 "Sun of York" is a pun — referring both to King Edward IV (son of the House of York) and the Yorkist heraldic emblem, the sun in splendour.
42. In Shakespeare's Henry V, what is the name of the battle in which the English defeat the French, celebrated in the play's most famous speech?
✓ The Battle of Agincourt
💡 The St Crispin's Day speech in Henry V — "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" — was fought on 25 October 1415.
43. Name the Shakespeare play in which a king loses his crown to Bolingbroke and contains the lines: "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle."
✓ Richard II
💡 "This sceptred isle" speech is actually spoken by John of Gaunt — a dying man lamenting England's decline, not celebrating it as is commonly assumed.
44. How many history plays did Shakespeare write about the reign of King Henry IV?
✓ Two (Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2)
💡 Both Henry IV plays feature Sir John Falstaff — one of Shakespeare's most beloved comic creations, despite appearing in the history genre.
45. In Shakespeare's history plays, which king famously cries "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" during the Battle of Bosworth Field?
✓ Richard III
💡 Richard III is the only English monarch whose remains were found under a car park — discovered beneath a Leicester Council car park in 2012.
46. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write in his famous sequence, published in 1609?
✓ 154
💡 The sonnets were dedicated to a mysterious "Mr W.H." — his identity has been debated for over 400 years without a definitive conclusion.
47. Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 begins with the line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" — but what does the poet conclude is superior to a summer's day?
✓ The beloved/the person being addressed (the poet argues the beloved is more lovely and more temperate than a summer's day)
💡 The sonnet's final couplet argues that as long as the poem is read, the beloved lives — poetry as immortality, written in 14 lines.
48. True or false: Shakespeare's sonnets were almost certainly published without his authorisation in 1609.
✓ True — most scholars believe the 1609 quarto was an unauthorised publication
💡 Shakespeare never publicly acknowledged the sonnets — unlike his narrative poems Venus and Adonis, which he personally dedicated to the Earl of Southampton.
49. In which Shakespeare history play does the young Prince Hal — later to become Henry V — spend time with Falstaff and his disreputable companions?
✓ Henry IV Part 1 (and Henry IV Part 2)
💡 Hal's rejection of Falstaff at the end of Henry IV Part 2 — "I know thee not, old man" — is considered one of Shakespeare's cruellest moments.
50. Which of Shakespeare's history plays covers the longest span of English history — dealing with events from around 1422 to 1471?
✓ Henry VI (Parts 1, 2, and 3 combined) — accept Henry VI
💡 The Henry VI trilogy is rarely performed in full today, but contains the origins of the Wars of the Roses — Shakespeare's most epic historical canvas.
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What strikes me every time I put together a Shakespeare quiz is how alive the arguments about him still are. The authorship question gets rolled out endlessly — Marlowe, Bacon, Oxford — and I find it genuinely less interesting than the debates you can have about the actual plays. Was Shylock a villain or a victim? Is The Tempest about colonialism? Is Falstaff Shakespeare's greatest creation or just his most loveable one? Those questions don't have right answers, which makes them useless for a quiz but brilliant for a pub. The questions with right answers — the ones in this post — are just the starting point for the conversations that follow.
If you've spotted something here that you think is wrong, please do get in touch — I'd genuinely rather know than not, and you can reach me at hello@simplyquizzes.com. Likewise, if there's a topic you'd like to see covered, send it over. There are plenty more quiz posts on the blog covering everything from film and TV to history and science — worth a browse if you're putting together a full quiz night rather than just a single round.