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KNOWLEDGE OF SHAKESPEARE TEST

NAME     Adrian Mole                                                        CLASS 4a

Read the left-hand column of this extract from Richard the Third, then in the right-hand column explain exactly what Shakespeare meant.

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York; And all the clouds that l'ourd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried	Haven't got a clue.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths Our bruised arms held up for monuments;	No, sorry, this sort of stuff is completely over my head.
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings Our dreadful marches to delightful measures Grim visag'd war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;	Explain exactly what Shakespeare meant? 'Grim visag'd war hath smoothed his wrinkled front'? I doubt if even bloody Shakespeare knew what he meant.
And now - instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of feared adversaries He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious playing of a lute	Didn't he have a hump, King Richard the Third?
But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp'd, and wanting love's majesty To strut before a wantom nymph	Yes, he was the one with the hump, if I remember rightly.
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion Cheated of a feature by dissembling nature	Well whatever feature he was cheated out of it wasn't a hump, that's for sure.
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up And that so lamely an unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;	Christ he didn't half go on about it, didn't he, I mean it's only a hump for Christ sake.
Why I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away all the time Unless to spy my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity;	He's still banging on about it!
And therefore, since I cannot proove a lover To entertain those fair well-spoken days I am determined to proove a villain And hate the idle pleasure of these days	Now he's got the hump!.......Ahhh, now I get it. Having a hump has given him the hump! Hey, that's not a bad observation Adrian lad, I should get a few marks for that. Right, now that I know the way that his mind works, now that the penny has finally dropped, I bet I'll do quite well.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate the one against the other; And, if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false and treacherous	............??? Oh bollocks to it!