Skip to main content
Shakespeare & Beyond

Quiz: Which characters use foreign words and phrases?

Posted
Author

Frank Howard. Detail from “Julius Caesar” [graphic]. Print, 1828. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Not surprisingly, Shakespeare’s plays are written almost entirely in English, no matter which place and time they are set in. But Shakespeare also uses words and phrases from French, Latin, and other foreign languages, whether to underline a dramatic moment, impart a comic twist, or add to the story in other ways. Can you tell which characters said these non-English words and phrases—including a famous question in Latin: Et tu, Brutè?

Shakespeare & Beyond

Comments

I found this quiz very interesting. I am now translating Arthur Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet into Japanese. I have already translated nearly 1,000 lines of it.

Tsuguhiro Kumagae — September 17, 2021

I enjoyed answering the quizzes.

LAKSHMI JAYARAMAN — October 19, 2021