Shakespeare Jeopardy

Tragedies, comedies, famous characters, and the Globe on a free Shakespeare review board. Copy it for English class and let students buzz in by phone.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For the classroom

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

The Bard's Life

$200
Shakespeare was born in 1564 in this Warwickshire market town.
What is Stratford-upon-Avon?
$400
In 1582 the 18-year-old Shakespeare married this woman, who was several years older than he was.
Who is Anne Hathaway?
$600
Shakespeare's only son, this twin of Judith, died in 1596 at the age of 11.
Who is Hamnet?
$800
This 1623 collection of 36 plays, gathered by two of his fellow actors, preserved many works that might otherwise have been lost.
What is the First Folio?
$1,000
Shakespeare's acting company, founded as the Lord Chamberlain's Men, took this new name when James I became its patron.
What are the King's Men?

Tragedies

$200
This Danish prince is urged by his father's ghost to avenge his murder.
Who is Hamlet?
$400
Three witches predict that this Scottish nobleman will become king.
Who is Macbeth?
$600
This Moorish general in Venetian service is manipulated by Iago into believing his wife is unfaithful.
Who is Othello?
$800
This aging king disowns his youngest daughter, Cordelia, when she refuses to flatter him.
Who is King Lear?
$1,000
In this Roman tragedy, a proud general's mother, Volumnia, persuades him to spare Rome.
What is Coriolanus?

Comedies

$200
In this comedy, four young Athenians get lost in an enchanted forest ruled by Oberon and Titania.
What is A Midsummer Night's Dream?
$400
Beatrice and Benedick trade witty insults before falling in love in this comedy set in Messina.
What is Much Ado About Nothing?
$600
In this comedy, Petruchio sets out to marry the sharp-tongued Katherina of Padua.
What is The Taming of the Shrew?
$800
Shipwrecked twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in this comedy set in Illyria.
What is Twelfth Night?
$1,000
In this comedy, two sets of identical twins separated in a shipwreck cause chaos in the city of Ephesus.
What is The Comedy of Errors?

Histories and Kings

$200
Unhorsed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, this king offers his kingdom for a horse.
Who is Richard III?
$400
This king rallies his outnumbered army at Agincourt with the St Crispin's Day speech.
Who is Henry V?
$600
This fat, witty knight is Prince Hal's drinking companion in the two parts of Henry IV.
Who is Sir John Falstaff?
$800
Shakespeare devoted three separate plays to this king, whose weak reign opened the Wars of the Roses.
Who is Henry VI?
$1,000
This king is deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in a play written almost entirely in verse.
Who is Richard II?

Who Said It

$200
From her balcony, this young Capulet wonders aloud why her love must bear the name Romeo.
Who is Juliet?
$400
This heiress of Belmont, disguised as a lawyer, declares that the quality of mercy is not strained.
Who is Portia?
$600
This character sleepwalks while trying to rub an imaginary spot of blood from her hands.
Who is Lady Macbeth?
$800
This Roman leader utters the words Et tu, Brute as the conspirators stab him.
Who is Julius Caesar?
$1,000
This melancholy lord in the Forest of Arden observes that all the world's a stage.
Who is Jaques?

Words He Gave Us

$200
Iago warns his general of jealousy, calling it this creature which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
What is the green-eyed monster?
$400
Aldous Huxley took this title for his 1932 dystopian novel from a line spoken by Miranda in The Tempest.
What is Brave New World?
$600
In a soliloquy, the thane who plans to kill King Duncan hopes a single blow might be this, a phrase we now use for the thing that matters most.
What is the be-all and end-all?
$800
In the play set in Verona, Romeo's friend Mercutio uses this phrase, originally a kind of horse race, for a pointless pursuit.
What is a wild-goose chase?
$1,000
In a Roman tragedy, the conspirator Casca admits Cicero's speech was this language to him, giving us a phrase for anything baffling.
What is Greek?

Final Jeopardy — The Playhouse

Built in 1599, the Globe Theatre, home to many of Shakespeare's plays, stood on the south bank of this London river.

What is the Thames?

How to run this board

Rather than drilling one play, this board surveys the whole playwright: his life in Stratford and London, the tragedies, the comedies, the histories, the characters everyone should recognize, and the words and phrases he gave the English language.

Clues about characters work best when students name both the character and the play, so make that the rule for the top two rows. It pushes past guessing Hamlet for everything.

If your class has read one play closely, let each team earn a bonus by explaining how a clue connects to that play. It turns a survey board into a review of the text you actually taught.

More from the library

Spotted a clue that's wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll fix the board. Or start from a blank board and write your own.