NAVIGATION: Index of Dr. Weller's Class Materials Index of English 340 Materials

NOTE: On the day the test (May 15) we will be meeting in 228 Computer Engineering Bldg (CEB).

Sample Test Questions: The Sixteenth Century


Short Answer Questions:

  1. What is the date of the first printing of the Gutenberg Bible? [1]
  2. In what year was Morte Darthur published, and by what publisher? [2]
  3. What cultural period does Hans Holbein the Younger belong to, and how do his paintings and drawings reflect that period? [2]
  4. What cultural period does Everyman belong to, and how do the kind of characters that appear in Everyman reflect the viewpoint of its time? [2]
  5. In what year was the first theater built in England? [1]
  6. In what year was Robert Greene's The Repentance of Robert Greene . . . published? [1]
  7. In what year was the last performance of a morality play (The Marriage Between Wit and Wisdom) in England? [1]
  8. In what year was "Tottel's Miscellany" first published? [1]
  9. How many editions of "Tottel's Miscellany" were published in the Sixteenth Century? [1]
  10. What is the actual title of "Tottel's Miscellany"? [1]
  11. What did Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, die of? [1]
  12. What did Sir Philip Sidney die of? [1]
  13. Why did Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder get a chance to witness the execution of five supposed lovers of Anne Boleyn? [1]
  14. Who invented the sonnet form known as "Shakespearean"? [1]
  15. Who was the first figure in English literature to make extensive use of blank verse? [1]
  16. In the Petrarchan sonnet there are two main divisions, each with its own rhyme scheme. What are the names of those two divisions? [2]
  17. What famous political figure died in the same year as the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets, and what was that year? [2]
  18. In Petrarch's view, how does love always begin? [1]
  19. In poetry belonging to the Petrarchan tradition, what two flowers may always be seen in the cheeks of the beloved lady? [2]
  20. In his plays, what was Shakespeare's attitude towards love as portrayed by Petrarch and Petrarch's imitators? [1]
  21. When he thinks he is in love with Rosalind, how does Romeo exhibit the characteristics of the Petrarchan lover?[1]
  22. What poet was translated by both Wyatt and Surrey? [1]
  23. Which are better poems, Wyatt's translations of Petrarch, or Wyatt's originals? [1]
  24. What is the tone of Sir Thomas Wyatt's "Divers doth use"? [1]
  25. In Spenser's Sonnet 68, what particular holiday is mentioned, and what does that holiday have to do with the message of the poem? [2]
  26. Christopher Marlowe was baptized exactly two months before the baptism of what other famous poet? [1]
  27. Sir Walter Ralegh is credited with introducing a certain popular product to Europe. What is it? [1]
  28. For Michael Drayton's Sonnet #61, from Idea, explain the contrast in tone between the first eight lines and the rest of the sonnet. [1]
  29. What song by Neil Sedaka is often compared to Michael Drayton's Sonnet #61, from Idea? [1]
  30. In his sonnets, Shakespeare's single most favorite subject is how time destroys beauty. He has two favorite solutions to this problem. What are they? Support each of your two answers with an appropriate quotation from a sonnet by Shakespeare. [4]
  31. In Shakespeare's Sonnet #20 ("A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted") what does the speaker say is useless to him? [1]
  32. In Shakespeare's Sonnet #3 ("Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest") what is the speaker's solution to the problem of the destruction of beauty by time? [1]
  33. In Shakespeare's Sonnet #3 ("Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest") what does the speaker say will happen to the young man if he does not beget a child? [1]
  34. What two plays were the first big hits of the Renaissance English theatre? [2]
  35. In Dr. Faustus what answer does Mephastophilis make when Faustus asks, "How comes it . . . that thou art out of hell?" [1]
  36. What does Faustus do when he pays a visit to the Pope? [1]
  37. What does Faustus do to get revenge on a knight who mockingly doubts his magical powers? [1]
  38. In the following lines, who is speaking, and about whom, and what is the situation? [3]
    Was this face that launched a thousand ships,
    And burnt the topless towers of Illium?
  39. What early tragedy by Shakespeare can be described as sensationalistic and melodramatic? [1]
  40. In Ralegh's "Nature, that washed her hands in milk" there is a problem with the nature of the lady created at Love's request. What is it? [1]
  41. In Wyatt's "Blame not my lute," what is it that the lute should not be blamed for? [1]
  42. In Shakespeare's Sonnet #130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun") does the speaker say that his mistress is ugly? Explain. [2]
  43. Campion made his mark in another art besides poetry. What is it.? [1]
  44. In Campion's "I care not for these ladies" what does the "nutbrown maid" always say, and what does she never say? [2]
  45. In Campion's "There is a garden in her face" what is the message about when all the fruits of the garden can be harvested? [1]
  46. In Campion's "Fain would I wed" what, considering the time, is surprising about the identity of the speaker? [1]
  47. What is the relationship between Sir John Davies' "Mine eye, mine ear, my will, my wit, my heart" and English love poetry of the Renaissance?[1]

Essay Questions:

  1. Discuss the differences between the way Chaucer portrays characters and the way Shakespeare portrays characters.
  2. Explain how the invention of printing helped to give birth to the cultural revolution that we know as the Renaissance.
  3. Discuss at least three poems by Wyatt and show how they all have a similar tone.
  4. Discuss at least three poems by Shakespeare and show how they all have different approaches to the topic of the effects of the passage of time.
  5. Discuss at least three poems by Campion and show how they all have a similar tone.
  6. Of the love poems that we have read, pick one and explain why it is your favorite. Compare it to at least three other poems by three different poets.