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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which character says, "Virility! It'd be easier to get blood out of a stone, and far more probable. I've bribed a major on his staff to shoot him in the battle"?
(a) Susan.
(b) Cordelia.
(c) Fontanelle.
(d) Bodice.

2. In Act 2, Scene 1, what does Cornwall suggest be done with Lear?
(a) Put him in prison.
(b) Execute him.
(c) Free him.
(d) Banish him.

3. What is the name of the wife of the Gravedigger's Boy?
(a) Susan.
(b) Bodice.
(c) Sarah.
(d) Cordelia.

4. Who has died at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1?
(a) A workman.
(b) The Gravedigger's Boy.
(c) Bodice.
(d) Lear.

5. Whom does Lear ask for while in the prison cell?
(a) Cordelia.
(b) Councillor.
(c) His daughters.
(d) The Gravedigger's Boy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which character says, "O don't waste your hypocrisy on me. You tried to kill yours once. My spies told me and they don't lie. They're the only moral institution in this country"?

2. Why does Lear, in an aside, tell his daughter the workman is being executed?

3. What does the Boy say his wife keeps?

4. Which character says, "Politics is the higher form of justice"?

5. Who advises the king to refuse the war?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the Wife of Gravedigger's Boy relevant to the plot? How does she feel about Lear living with her and her husband?

2. Why has the Small Man come to find Lear? Where has he come from?

3. Describe the torture of the captured Warrington. What does this scene inform the reader or audience about the nature of the characters?

4. Why does Carpenter refuse to untie the prisoners once he has captured the soldiers in Act 2?

5. Why does the Ghost not go with Lear when Lear is taken from the cell?

6. Why do the villagers come to hear Lear speak? What message is he telling them?

7. What does Lear go to do at the Wall in the final scene? Why?

8. Who is the Carpenter? What is revealed to Lear about this character? How does he fit into the plot?

9. Why has Lear been spared in the prison? How does he escape?

10. What do Thomas and Ben reveal to Lear that they plan to do in Act 3, Scene 2? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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