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?

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

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 the actors on the stage into a thousand small groups, and send the groups off the stage.
   • 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.
   • 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 within the circle of these walls are now shut up two mighty kingdoms.
   • Suppose that two mighty kingdoms are now shut up inside the circle of these theater walls.
   • Suppose that two mighty kings have now built a tall wall around the circle of this theater.

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.

    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 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.
    • Olivia stared so hard that she could hardly speak, because she had already planned to marry Viola that day.

12. 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.

13. 7.

    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, on the power of your imagination work.
    • And let us, who are only zeros in this great total, work on the power of your imagination.
    • We actors, who are only zeros in this great total, have already worked on your imagination.
    • And let the power of your imagination, like a zero in a great total, work on us actors.
14. 8.

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

    • Or can we fill this round wooden theater with new helmets made to look like the ones from Agincourt?
    • 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?

15. 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.

16. 9.

    Tala notices that Viola tells Malvolio Olivia took the ring, but in part 6 says, “I left no ring with her.” Why can Viola say the truth in part 6?

    • Viola speaks it in an aside, so Malvolio, still standing on the stage, is unable to hear the truth.
    • In a soliloquy a character speaks in verse, and verse is what Shakespeare uses for telling the truth.
    • Viola calls it after Malvolio as he leaves, so Olivia will learn that the ring trick has failed.
    • Malvolio has exited, so in a soliloquy Viola can say aloud what would give Olivia away if Malvolio heard.
17. 10.

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

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