Reading a Shakespeare scene

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a history play)

   Prince Hal, who will one day be king, spends his days joking with idle friends in London taverns. His friend Poins has just planned a prank with him.
   [1] PRINCE: Well, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap; there I’ll sup. Farewell.
   [2] POINS: Farewell, my lord. (Exit Poins.)
   [3] PRINCE: I know you all, and will awhile uphold / The unyok’d humour of your idleness.
   [4] Yet herein will I imitate the sun, / Who doth permit the base contagious clouds / To smother up his beauty from the world,
   [5] That, when he please again to be himself, / Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, / By breaking through the foul and ugly mists / Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
   [6] If all the year were playing holidays, / To sport would be as tedious as to work; / But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come, / And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
   [7] So when this loose behavior I throw off, / And pay the debt I never promised, / By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
   [8] And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, / My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault, / Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes / Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
   [9] I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill, / Redeeming time, when men think least I will. (Exit.)

   Word help: Eastcheap = a London street with taverns; sup = eat supper; uphold = go along with; unyok’d humour = wild, untamed mood, like an ox let out of its yoke; base contagious clouds = low, unhealthy clouds; being wanted = being missed; vapours = mists; sport = play; rare accidents = unusual events; falsify men’s hopes = prove people’s low expectations wrong; sullen ground = dull, dark background; foil = a contrast that makes something look better; redeeming time = making up for lost time.

2. 1.

   Ari is filling in the device and effect margins for parts 4 and 5. What is the image, and what does it do for Hal’s plan?

   • Hal is complaining about the London weather, where low gray clouds hide the sun for days at a time.
   • Hal compares himself to the sun hidden by clouds, so his later return to goodness will look all the more dazzling.
   • Hal compares himself to the sun and his idle friends to the low, unhealthy clouds that cover it.
   • Hal compares his friends to the sun and himself to the clouds that hide their goodness from the world.

3. Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

   Viola, disguised as the young man “Cesario,” has just delivered Duke Orsino’s love message to Countess Olivia, who does not love the duke.
   [1] OLIVIA: You might do much. / What is your parentage?
   [2] VIOLA: Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.
   [3] OLIVIA: Get you to your lord; / I cannot love him: let him send no more, / Unless, perchance, you come to me again, / To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well: / I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
   [4] VIOLA: I am no fee’d post, lady; keep your purse; / My master, not myself, lacks recompense. / Love make his heart of flint that you shall love, / And let your fervor like my master’s be / Plac’d in contempt. Farewell, fair cruelty. (Exit Viola.)
   [5] OLIVIA: What is your parentage? / ‘Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.’ I’ll be sworn thou art; / Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, / Do give thee five-fold blazon.
   [6] Not too fast: soft, soft! / Unless the master were the man. How now? / Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
   [7] Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections / With an invisible and subtle stealth / To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be. / What ho, Malvolio! (Enter Malvolio.)
   [8] MALVOLIO: Here, madam, at your service.
   [9] OLIVIA: Run after that same peevish messenger / The County’s man: he left this ring behind him, / Would I or not; tell him, I’ll none of it. / Desire him not to flatter with his lord, / Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him.
   [10] If that the youth will come this way tomorrow, / I’ll give him reasons for’t. Hie thee, Malvolio.
   [11] MALVOLIO: Madam, I will. (Exit Malvolio.)
   [12] OLIVIA: I do I know not what, and fear to find / Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. / Fate, show thy force, ourselves we do not owe. / What is decreed must be; and be this so! (Exit.)

   Word help: parentage = family background; above my fortunes = born higher than my present job; state = rank; fee’d post = a paid messenger; recompense = reward; heart of flint = a heart as hard as stone; Plac’d in contempt = scorned; five-fold blazon = a coat of arms proving noble birth five times over; soft = slow down; Unless the master were the man = unless the duke were this young man; perfections = good qualities; subtle stealth = quiet sneaking; County = count, the duke; flatter with = give false hope to; reasons for’t = my reasons; Hie thee = hurry; owe = own, control; decreed = decided by fate.

4. 2.

   Bo notices that in part 9 Olivia sends Malvolio after Cesario with a ring that was never left. What does this plan set up?

   • The plan sets up a scene in which Malvolio keeps the ring for himself and is caught with it later.
   • Olivia invents an excuse to bring Cesario back, which leads to the mix-up when Viola is handed a ring never given.
   • Viola has already agreed to the plan, so the ring is a signal that the two will meet again tomorrow.
   • Olivia calls for Malvolio, hands him a ring and tells him to run after the duke’s young messenger.
5. 3.

   Kira is filling in the device and effect margins for parts 6 and 7. What is Olivia’s image for falling in love, and what does it show?

   • Olivia fears the messenger has brought an illness into the house and stops to check her own health.
   • Love is an illness caught in a moment, creeping in through her eyes: she falls fast and helplessly.
   • Olivia compares falling in love to catching an illness that creeps in quietly through the eyes.
   • Olivia compares love to an illness, which shows that she is calm and has decided to stay away from Cesario.
6. 4.

   Luz is reading Olivia’s soliloquy in parts 5 to 7. What do the short bursts, such as “soft, soft!” and “How now?”, show about Olivia?

   • The short bursts and questions show Olivia catching herself falling in love faster than she wants.
   • Olivia speaks in long, calm sentences, which shows that she has carefully decided to love Cesario.
   • Viola’s short questions show that Viola is nervous about being found out by Olivia.
   • The short bursts and questions show that Olivia is angry at Cesario for refusing her money.

7. Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a history play)

   Prince Hal, who will one day be king, spends his days joking with idle friends in London taverns. His friend Poins has just planned a prank with him.
   [1] PRINCE: Well, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap; there I’ll sup. Farewell.
   [2] POINS: Farewell, my lord. (Exit Poins.)
   [3] PRINCE: I know you all, and will awhile uphold / The unyok’d humour of your idleness.
   [4] Yet herein will I imitate the sun, / Who doth permit the base contagious clouds / To smother up his beauty from the world,
   [5] That, when he please again to be himself, / Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, / By breaking through the foul and ugly mists / Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
   [6] If all the year were playing holidays, / To sport would be as tedious as to work; / But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come, / And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
   [7] So when this loose behavior I throw off, / And pay the debt I never promised, / By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
   [8] And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, / My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault, / Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes / Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
   [9] I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill, / Redeeming time, when men think least I will. (Exit.)

   Word help: Eastcheap = a London street with taverns; sup = eat supper; uphold = go along with; unyok’d humour = wild, untamed mood, like an ox let out of its yoke; base contagious clouds = low, unhealthy clouds; being wanted = being missed; vapours = mists; sport = play; rare accidents = unusual events; falsify men’s hopes = prove people’s low expectations wrong; sullen ground = dull, dark background; foil = a contrast that makes something look better; redeeming time = making up for lost time.

8. 5.

   Milo is thinking ahead. How does Hal’s soliloquy change the way the audience will watch his later scenes with his tavern friends?

   • The audience now knows Hal’s idleness is a planned act, so they watch his jokes knowing he means to leave.
   • The audience now knows that Hal plans to stay in the taverns for good, so they watch for signs that he cannot change.
   • The audience now knows the plan, so they expect Hal to confess it to his friends in the very next scene.
   • The audience now knows that Poins has heard the plan, so they watch Poins keep it secret from the others.
9. 6.

   Noah is filling in the device and effect margins for part 8. What does the image of bright metal on a sullen ground do for Hal’s plan?

   • Hal’s bad past will spoil the shine of his change, the way a dark background dulls bright metal.
   • Hal compares his reformation to bright metal shining on a dull, dark background.
   • Hal’s friends are the bright metal, and his bad past is the dark background that makes them shine out in the crowd.
   • Hal’s change will shine like bright metal set on a dark background, looking better because of his bad past.

10. Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

    Viola, disguised as the young man “Cesario,” has just delivered Duke Orsino’s love message to Countess Olivia, who does not love the duke.
    [1] OLIVIA: You might do much. / What is your parentage?
    [2] VIOLA: Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.
    [3] OLIVIA: Get you to your lord; / I cannot love him: let him send no more, / Unless, perchance, you come to me again, / To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well: / I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
    [4] VIOLA: I am no fee’d post, lady; keep your purse; / My master, not myself, lacks recompense. / Love make his heart of flint that you shall love, / And let your fervor like my master’s be / Plac’d in contempt. Farewell, fair cruelty. (Exit Viola.)
    [5] OLIVIA: What is your parentage? / ‘Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.’ I’ll be sworn thou art; / Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, / Do give thee five-fold blazon.
    [6] Not too fast: soft, soft! / Unless the master were the man. How now? / Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
    [7] Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections / With an invisible and subtle stealth / To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be. / What ho, Malvolio! (Enter Malvolio.)
    [8] MALVOLIO: Here, madam, at your service.
    [9] OLIVIA: Run after that same peevish messenger / The County’s man: he left this ring behind him, / Would I or not; tell him, I’ll none of it. / Desire him not to flatter with his lord, / Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him.
    [10] If that the youth will come this way tomorrow, / I’ll give him reasons for’t. Hie thee, Malvolio.
    [11] MALVOLIO: Madam, I will. (Exit Malvolio.)
    [12] OLIVIA: I do I know not what, and fear to find / Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. / Fate, show thy force, ourselves we do not owe. / What is decreed must be; and be this so! (Exit.)

    Word help: parentage = family background; above my fortunes = born higher than my present job; state = rank; fee’d post = a paid messenger; recompense = reward; heart of flint = a heart as hard as stone; Plac’d in contempt = scorned; five-fold blazon = a coat of arms proving noble birth five times over; soft = slow down; Unless the master were the man = unless the duke were this young man; perfections = good qualities; subtle stealth = quiet sneaking; County = count, the duke; flatter with = give false hope to; reasons for’t = my reasons; Hie thee = hurry; owe = own, control; decreed = decided by fate.

11. 7.

    Pia is reading Olivia’s closing couplets in part 12. How do they prepare the audience for what comes next?

    • Olivia hands the outcome to fate instead of stopping, so the audience expects her love for Cesario to tangle the plot.
    • Olivia’s couplets tell the audience that fate has already decided she will marry the duke.
    • Olivia ends the scene with two rhymed couplets about her eye, her mind and fate, and then she exits.
    • Olivia decides to forget Cesario and leave everything to fate, so the audience expects the love story to end.

12. Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a history play)

    Prince Hal, who will one day be king, spends his days joking with idle friends in London taverns. His friend Poins has just planned a prank with him.
    [1] PRINCE: Well, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap; there I’ll sup. Farewell.
    [2] POINS: Farewell, my lord. (Exit Poins.)
    [3] PRINCE: I know you all, and will awhile uphold / The unyok’d humour of your idleness.
    [4] Yet herein will I imitate the sun, / Who doth permit the base contagious clouds / To smother up his beauty from the world,
    [5] That, when he please again to be himself, / Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, / By breaking through the foul and ugly mists / Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
    [6] If all the year were playing holidays, / To sport would be as tedious as to work; / But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come, / And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
    [7] So when this loose behavior I throw off, / And pay the debt I never promised, / By how much better than my word I am, / By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
    [8] And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, / My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my fault, / Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes / Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
    [9] I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill, / Redeeming time, when men think least I will. (Exit.)

    Word help: Eastcheap = a London street with taverns; sup = eat supper; uphold = go along with; unyok’d humour = wild, untamed mood, like an ox let out of its yoke; base contagious clouds = low, unhealthy clouds; being wanted = being missed; vapours = mists; sport = play; rare accidents = unusual events; falsify men’s hopes = prove people’s low expectations wrong; sullen ground = dull, dark background; foil = a contrast that makes something look better; redeeming time = making up for lost time.

13. 8.

    Ren notices that Hal’s soliloquy ends with a rhymed couplet, “skill” and “will.” What does this ending show about Hal?

    • The speech ends with an open question, which shows that Hal is still unsure what he will do.
    • The last two lines rhyme, “skill” with “will,” like the closing lines of a song.
    • The rhymed couplet closes the speech with a firm, finished sound: Hal’s mind is made up.
    • The rhyme makes the ending light and silly, which shows that Hal is just joking about the plan.

14. Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

    Viola, disguised as the young man “Cesario,” has just delivered Duke Orsino’s love message to Countess Olivia, who does not love the duke.
    [1] OLIVIA: You might do much. / What is your parentage?
    [2] VIOLA: Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.
    [3] OLIVIA: Get you to your lord; / I cannot love him: let him send no more, / Unless, perchance, you come to me again, / To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well: / I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
    [4] VIOLA: I am no fee’d post, lady; keep your purse; / My master, not myself, lacks recompense. / Love make his heart of flint that you shall love, / And let your fervor like my master’s be / Plac’d in contempt. Farewell, fair cruelty. (Exit Viola.)
    [5] OLIVIA: What is your parentage? / ‘Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: / I am a gentleman.’ I’ll be sworn thou art; / Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, / Do give thee five-fold blazon.
    [6] Not too fast: soft, soft! / Unless the master were the man. How now? / Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
    [7] Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections / With an invisible and subtle stealth / To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be. / What ho, Malvolio! (Enter Malvolio.)
    [8] MALVOLIO: Here, madam, at your service.
    [9] OLIVIA: Run after that same peevish messenger / The County’s man: he left this ring behind him, / Would I or not; tell him, I’ll none of it. / Desire him not to flatter with his lord, / Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him.
    [10] If that the youth will come this way tomorrow, / I’ll give him reasons for’t. Hie thee, Malvolio.
    [11] MALVOLIO: Madam, I will. (Exit Malvolio.)
    [12] OLIVIA: I do I know not what, and fear to find / Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. / Fate, show thy force, ourselves we do not owe. / What is decreed must be; and be this so! (Exit.)

    Word help: parentage = family background; above my fortunes = born higher than my present job; state = rank; fee’d post = a paid messenger; recompense = reward; heart of flint = a heart as hard as stone; Plac’d in contempt = scorned; five-fold blazon = a coat of arms proving noble birth five times over; soft = slow down; Unless the master were the man = unless the duke were this young man; perfections = good qualities; subtle stealth = quiet sneaking; County = count, the duke; flatter with = give false hope to; reasons for’t = my reasons; Hie thee = hurry; owe = own, control; decreed = decided by fate.

15. 9.

    Tala is filling in the device and effect margins for part 4, “Love make his heart of flint that you shall love.” What does Viola’s image wish on Olivia?

    • Viola wishes that the man Olivia loves will be gentle and kind to her, so she can be happy at last.
    • Viola wishes that the man Olivia loves will work with flint stones and build her a fine house.
    • Viola says that Olivia’s own heart is as hard as flint, and wishes it would soften toward the duke.
    • Viola wishes the man Olivia loves will have a heart as hard as stone, so Olivia feels the scorn the duke feels.
16. 10.

    Zee notices that in part 5 Olivia repeats Cesario’s answer word for word after Viola exits. What does the repetition show?

    • Olivia repeats “Above my fortunes, yet my state is well” after Cesario has gone.
    • Malvolio repeats the messenger’s words to Olivia, which shows that he is suspicious of Cesario.
    • Olivia repeats the young man’s exact words because she cannot stop thinking about Cesario.
    • Olivia repeats the words to mock Cesario’s answer, which shows that she thinks the messenger is lying.