View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. With which of the following monikers does Stephen tease Matthew?

2. What sign hangs on the house where Diana and Matthew lodge in Prague?

3. Which of the following is the name of the weaver Diana meets in Prague?

4. How many inmates of Bedlam does Diana note, total?

5. The novel glosses the term “oubliette” as which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Diana note is an unexpected benefit of being a weaver as she and Matthew prepare for their first meeting with the Holy Roman Emperor?

2. What spring-welcoming does Kelley mention that angers Matthew?

3. What errors in her father’s period clothing does Diana note when she first encounters him in Elizabethan England?

4. What is Lobero?

5. How, per Hubbard, does James of Scotland manage to reverse a jury’s decision?

6. What does Marlowe propose to do to Diana in the tiltyard at Greenwich?

7. What perils does Matthew note to Diana that their interpersonal situation poses them in Prague?

8. What is the compendium Diana receives from Habermel?

9. What information does Rabbi Loew provide to Diana and Matthew regarding Ashmole 782?

10. What does Diana note about the *outside* of the Bosch triptych Matthew receives in Prague?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Diana remarks that the loss of Matthew’s first wife and child could not have been prevented, he replies that he “could have stopped [himself] from having her. Then there would have been no one to lose!” (139), speaking to a nihilistic perspective that the pain of loss is greater than the joy of love. Does the novel support that perspective? How is that support or its lack shown in the text?

Essay Topic 2

Diana notes that, passing near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, she “felt a surge of energy that reminded [her] of the temple to the goddess near Sept-Tours. Deep under the cathedral, something sensed [her] presence. It responded with a whisper, a slight stirring beneath [her] feet, a sigh of acknowledgement—and then it was gone” (241). Based on the novel and what it reveals of the author’s outside reading, what might that “something” be? Why might it be so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the comments about The Faerie Queene that Diana and Marlowe make at the beginning of the fifth chapter (58). To what extent can they be taken as indicative of the author’s regard for the work? What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 827 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample