Reading a Shakespeare scene

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

   Viola, a young woman disguised as a young man named Cesario, has carried Duke Orsino's love message to Countess Olivia. On a street outside, Olivia's steward, Malvolio, catches up with Viola.
   [1] MALVOLIO: She returns this ring to you, sir; you might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself.
   [2] She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will none of him.
   [3] And one thing more, that you be never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord’s taking of this. Receive it so.
   [4] VIOLA: She took the ring of me: I’ll none of it.
   [5] MALVOLIO: Come sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is it should be so returned. If it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. (Exit Malvolio.)
   [6] VIOLA: I left no ring with her; what means this lady? / Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her!
   [7] She made good view of me, indeed, so much, / That methought her eyes had lost her tongue, / For she did speak in starts distractedly.
   [8] She loves me, sure, the cunning of her passion / Invites me in this churlish messenger.
   [9] None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.
   [10] I am the man; if it be so, as ’tis, / Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

   Word help: none of him = nothing to do with him; hardy = bold; peevishly = in a bad temper; outside = looks; made good view of me = looked hard at me; in starts = in bursts; churlish = rude; she were better = she would do better to.

2. 1.

   Ari is labeling the speeches in the margin. Which label fits Viola’s lines in parts 6 to 10, and why?

   • Direct address: Viola steps forward as the narrator of the play and tells the audience what will happen next.
   • Aside: Viola makes quick private remarks to the audience while Malvolio is still standing close by.
   • Soliloquy: Viola is alone on stage after Malvolio exits, so only the audience hears these thoughts.
   • Soliloquy: Viola now speaks in lines of verse, while Malvolio spoke to Viola in prose before.

3. Henry V, Prologue to Act 1 (Shakespeare, a history play)

   Before the play begins, a single actor called the Chorus walks onto the bare stage. The excerpt begins partway into his opening speech.
   [1] CHORUS: But pardon, gentles all, / The flat unraised spirits that hath dar’d / On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth / So great an object.
   [2] Can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France?
   [3] Or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques / That did affright the air at Agincourt?
   [4] O pardon! since a crooked figure may / Attest in little place a million, / And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, / On your imaginary forces work.
   [5] Suppose within the girdle of these walls / Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies, / Whose high upreared and abutting fronts / The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
   [6] Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.
   [7] Into a thousand parts divide one man, / And make imaginary puissance.
   [8] Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them / Printing their proud hoofs i’ th’ receiving earth.
   [9] For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, / Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times, / Turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass:
   [10] for the which supply, / Admit me Chorus to this history; / Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, / Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. (Exit.)

   Word help: gentles = gentle people (the audience); flat unraised spirits = dull, ordinary actors; scaffold = stage; cockpit and wooden O = the small round theater; vasty = huge; casques = helmets; crooked figure = a zero added to a number; ciphers = zeros; accompt = account, total; girdle = belt, ring; monarchies = kingdoms (England and France); puissance = an army; deck = dress; prologue-like = like the speaker of a prologue.

4. 2.

   Bo is writing plain words in the margin. What is the Chorus really saying with the two questions in parts 2 and 3?

   • The theater cannot hold the fields of France, so the actors will act out the battle outside in the street.
   • The small round theater cannot truly hold the wide fields of France or the armies that fought there.
   • The round wooden theater is big enough to hold the fields of France, so the battles will look real.
   • Each actor on the stage must be imagined as a thousand soldiers, so that one man becomes an army.

5. Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

   Viola, a young woman disguised as a young man named Cesario, has carried Duke Orsino's love message to Countess Olivia. On a street outside, Olivia's steward, Malvolio, catches up with Viola.
   [1] MALVOLIO: She returns this ring to you, sir; you might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself.
   [2] She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will none of him.
   [3] And one thing more, that you be never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord’s taking of this. Receive it so.
   [4] VIOLA: She took the ring of me: I’ll none of it.
   [5] MALVOLIO: Come sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is it should be so returned. If it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. (Exit Malvolio.)
   [6] VIOLA: I left no ring with her; what means this lady? / Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her!
   [7] She made good view of me, indeed, so much, / That methought her eyes had lost her tongue, / For she did speak in starts distractedly.
   [8] She loves me, sure, the cunning of her passion / Invites me in this churlish messenger.
   [9] None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.
   [10] I am the man; if it be so, as ’tis, / Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

   Word help: none of him = nothing to do with him; hardy = bold; peevishly = in a bad temper; outside = looks; made good view of me = looked hard at me; in starts = in bursts; churlish = rude; she were better = she would do better to.

6. 3.

   Esme is putting part 2 into plain words. What message from Olivia does Malvolio pass on about Viola’s lord, Duke Orsino?

   • Olivia wants nothing to do with Orsino, and Orsino should give up all hope of winning her love.
   • Olivia has decided to accept Orsino at last, so Orsino can stop feeling desperate about her.
   • Viola must never come back on Orsino’s business, except to report how Orsino took the news.
   • Olivia has none of Orsino’s love letters left, so Orsino should send a desperate new one soon after this.

7. Henry V, Prologue to Act 1 (Shakespeare, a history play)

   Before the play begins, a single actor called the Chorus walks onto the bare stage. The excerpt begins partway into his opening speech.
   [1] CHORUS: But pardon, gentles all, / The flat unraised spirits that hath dar’d / On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth / So great an object.
   [2] Can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France?
   [3] Or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques / That did affright the air at Agincourt?
   [4] O pardon! since a crooked figure may / Attest in little place a million, / And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, / On your imaginary forces work.
   [5] Suppose within the girdle of these walls / Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies, / Whose high upreared and abutting fronts / The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
   [6] Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.
   [7] Into a thousand parts divide one man, / And make imaginary puissance.
   [8] Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them / Printing their proud hoofs i’ th’ receiving earth.
   [9] For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, / Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times, / Turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass:
   [10] for the which supply, / Admit me Chorus to this history; / Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, / Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. (Exit.)

   Word help: gentles = gentle people (the audience); flat unraised spirits = dull, ordinary actors; scaffold = stage; cockpit and wooden O = the small round theater; vasty = huge; casques = helmets; crooked figure = a zero added to a number; ciphers = zeros; accompt = account, total; girdle = belt, ring; monarchies = kingdoms (England and France); puissance = an army; deck = dress; prologue-like = like the speaker of a prologue.

8. 4.

   Jun is rewriting part 7 in the margin. Which choice puts “Into a thousand parts divide one man” into normal modern word order?

   • Divide one man into a thousand parts in your mind, and make an imaginary army out of them.
   • One man on the stage has now been divided into a thousand parts and made into a real army.
   • Divide the actors on the stage into a thousand small groups, and send the groups off the stage.
   • Join a thousand men together into one single man, and make an imaginary army out of him.
9. 5.

   Kira wants a plain-order version of part 5. Which choice says “Suppose within the girdle of these walls / Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies” in normal order?

   • Suppose that these theater walls are now shut up inside the circle of two mighty kingdoms.
   • Suppose that two mighty kings have now built a tall wall around the circle of this theater.
   • Suppose that two mighty kingdoms are now shut up inside the circle of these theater walls.
   • Suppose within the circle of these walls are now shut up two mighty kingdoms.

10. Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

    Viola, a young woman disguised as a young man named Cesario, has carried Duke Orsino's love message to Countess Olivia. On a street outside, Olivia's steward, Malvolio, catches up with Viola.
    [1] MALVOLIO: She returns this ring to you, sir; you might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself.
    [2] She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will none of him.
    [3] And one thing more, that you be never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord’s taking of this. Receive it so.
    [4] VIOLA: She took the ring of me: I’ll none of it.
    [5] MALVOLIO: Come sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is it should be so returned. If it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. (Exit Malvolio.)
    [6] VIOLA: I left no ring with her; what means this lady? / Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her!
    [7] She made good view of me, indeed, so much, / That methought her eyes had lost her tongue, / For she did speak in starts distractedly.
    [8] She loves me, sure, the cunning of her passion / Invites me in this churlish messenger.
    [9] None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.
    [10] I am the man; if it be so, as ’tis, / Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

    Word help: none of him = nothing to do with him; hardy = bold; peevishly = in a bad temper; outside = looks; made good view of me = looked hard at me; in starts = in bursts; churlish = rude; she were better = she would do better to.

11. 6.

    Luz is labeling part 4, where Viola tells Malvolio, “She took the ring of me: I’ll none of it.” Which label fits this line?

    • Direct address: Viola faces the audience and explains that the countess has sent the ring back.
    • Aside: Viola turns to the audience and admits the truth while Malvolio is unable to hear.
    • Soliloquy: Viola says it alone on stage, thinking aloud about the ring after Malvolio has gone.
    • Dialogue: Viola says it to Malvolio, who hears every word, so Viola must answer as Cesario would.
12. 7.

    Milo is putting part 7 into plain words. What does Viola mean by saying that Olivia’s “eyes had lost her tongue”?

    • Olivia hardly looked at Viola, because she was busy giving a long and very clear speech.
    • Olivia stared so hard that she could hardly speak, because she had already planned to marry Viola that day.
    • Olivia cleverly used rude Malvolio and the ring to invite Viola to come back and visit.
    • Olivia stared at Viola so hard that she could hardly get her words out and spoke in bursts.

13. Henry V, Prologue to Act 1 (Shakespeare, a history play)

    Before the play begins, a single actor called the Chorus walks onto the bare stage. The excerpt begins partway into his opening speech.
    [1] CHORUS: But pardon, gentles all, / The flat unraised spirits that hath dar’d / On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth / So great an object.
    [2] Can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France?
    [3] Or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques / That did affright the air at Agincourt?
    [4] O pardon! since a crooked figure may / Attest in little place a million, / And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, / On your imaginary forces work.
    [5] Suppose within the girdle of these walls / Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies, / Whose high upreared and abutting fronts / The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
    [6] Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.
    [7] Into a thousand parts divide one man, / And make imaginary puissance.
    [8] Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them / Printing their proud hoofs i’ th’ receiving earth.
    [9] For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, / Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times, / Turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass:
    [10] for the which supply, / Admit me Chorus to this history; / Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, / Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. (Exit.)

    Word help: gentles = gentle people (the audience); flat unraised spirits = dull, ordinary actors; scaffold = stage; cockpit and wooden O = the small round theater; vasty = huge; casques = helmets; crooked figure = a zero added to a number; ciphers = zeros; accompt = account, total; girdle = belt, ring; monarchies = kingdoms (England and France); puissance = an army; deck = dress; prologue-like = like the speaker of a prologue.

14. 8.

    Noah is untangling part 4. Which choice puts “And let us … On your imaginary forces work” into normal modern word order?

    • And let us, who are only zeros in this great total, work on the power of your imagination.
    • And let us, who are only zeros in this great total, on the power of your imagination work.
    • And let the power of your imagination, like a zero in a great total, work on us actors.
    • We actors, who are only zeros in this great total, have already worked on your imagination.
15. 9.

    Ren is untangling part 3. Which choice puts “Or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques” into normal order?

    • We have crammed the very helmets that frightened the air at Agincourt inside this round wooden theater.
    • Or can we cram the very helmets that frightened the air at Agincourt inside this round wooden theater?
    • Or may we cram within this round wooden theater the very helmets that frightened the air at Agincourt?
    • Or can we fill this round wooden theater with new helmets made to look like the ones from Agincourt?

16. Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2 (Shakespeare, a comedy)

    Viola, a young woman disguised as a young man named Cesario, has carried Duke Orsino's love message to Countess Olivia. On a street outside, Olivia's steward, Malvolio, catches up with Viola.
    [1] MALVOLIO: She returns this ring to you, sir; you might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself.
    [2] She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will none of him.
    [3] And one thing more, that you be never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord’s taking of this. Receive it so.
    [4] VIOLA: She took the ring of me: I’ll none of it.
    [5] MALVOLIO: Come sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is it should be so returned. If it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. (Exit Malvolio.)
    [6] VIOLA: I left no ring with her; what means this lady? / Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her!
    [7] She made good view of me, indeed, so much, / That methought her eyes had lost her tongue, / For she did speak in starts distractedly.
    [8] She loves me, sure, the cunning of her passion / Invites me in this churlish messenger.
    [9] None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.
    [10] I am the man; if it be so, as ’tis, / Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

    Word help: none of him = nothing to do with him; hardy = bold; peevishly = in a bad temper; outside = looks; made good view of me = looked hard at me; in starts = in bursts; churlish = rude; she were better = she would do better to.

17. 10.

    Zee is writing plain words beside part 10. What does Viola mean by “Poor lady, she were better love a dream”?

    • Olivia ought to go to sleep early tonight, so that she can dream about the man she loves.
    • Olivia might as well be in love with a dream, because the young man she loves does not really exist.
    • Olivia might as well love a dream, so Viola will tell her the truth about the disguise tomorrow.
    • Olivia is a lucky lady, because the young man she loves is real and will soon love her back.