Memorize these and you could recognize 48.2% of all Shakespeare clues.
| # | Answer | Appearances | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamlet | 91 | I'm going over this guy's monologue for an audition... "To be, or not to be", OK... "bare bodkin"... "mortal coil"... I totally got this! |
| 2 | Macbeth | 72 | Their 1st exit line is "Fair is foul, & foul is fair: Hover through the fog & filthy air" |
| 3 | Othello | 68 | Moorish hanky-panky, with a real hanky |
| 4 | King Lear | 62 | A 1994 royal Disney film with serious uncle/nephew issues becomes a royal tragedy with serious daddy/ daughter issues |
| 5 | Romeo and Juliet | 59 | Tybalt, Act I, scene v:"Uncle" |
| 6 | The Tempest | 55 | The renouncing of magic in this play is believed to be the bard's symbolic farewell to the stage |
| 7 | Richard III | 51 | "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York..." |
| 8 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | 46 | Mustardseed, Act III, scene i:"Mustardseed" |
| 9 | Julius Caesar | 45 | The title character utters the famous line, "Et tu, Brute?":J.C. |
| 10 | The Taming of the Shrew | 45 | Christopher Sly, Act I, scene i:"Yes" |
| 11 | The Merchant of Venice | 38 | Much ado about a pound of flesh |
| 12 | Cleopatra | 33 | This queen of Egypt was permanently dethroned by poisonous snakes hidden in a fig basket:TACO PEARL |
| 13 | Iago | 32 | He has 272 speeches, the most of any non-title character in a Shakespeare tragedy |
| 14 | Juliet | 28 | She said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" |
| 15 | Romeo | 27 | The "What's in a Name" speech referred to his |
| 16 | Twelfth Night | 27 | This play begat at least 2 operas named "Viola" & 2 named "Malvolio" |
| 17 | The Merry Wives of Windsor | 24 | Play in which Mistress Page says "Wives may be merry, & yet honest too" |
| 18 | Much Ado About Nothing | 24 | In other words, this title is "a lot of fuss concerning zilch" |
| 19 | Troilus and Cressida | 24 | Achilles, Act II, scene i:"What? What?" |
| 20 | Sir John Falstaff | 24 | Comic character depicted here with Shakespeare in monument at Stratford-on-Avon: |
| 21 | Lady Macbeth | 22 | The famous line "Out, out, brief candle!" is spoken after the announcement of this woman's death |
| 22 | As You Like It | 21 | Comedy partly based on a novel by Thomas Lodge entitled "Rosalynde" |
| 23 | Titus Andronicus | 20 | In this play's first scene, dastardly deeds are done at the tomb of the Andronici |
| 24 | Henry V | 19 | In 3rd play in which he appears, he becomes king & gets a girl, but she can't speak English |
| 25 | Prospero | 18 | The rightful Duke of Milan in "The Tempest", he says "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" |
| 26 | Ophelia | 18 | Hamlet is her ex-boyfriend & the other men in her life are no picnic either:PEA HI LO |
| 27 | Portia | 17 | Bassanio found this lady lawyer's picture inside a leaden casket |
| 28 | The Two Gentlemen of Verona | 17 | Song standard heard here if performed by Valentine & Proteus, a duo from a town in Italy: |
| 29 | Shylock | 15 | He asked, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?" |
| 30 | Petruchio | 15 | He came "to wive it wealthily in Padua, if wealthily, then happily in Padua" |
| 31 | Desdemona | 15 | She says of Othello, "His unkindness may defeat my life, but never taint my love" |
| 32 | Antony and Cleopatra | 14 | Octavia, Octavius, battle, snake, figs, finis |
| 33 | Verona | 13 | Escalus, prince of this city, has the last line in Romeo & Juliet |
| 34 | Brutus | 13 | We got this mook on security camera near the body, saying, "senators, be not affrighted... ambition's debt is paid"; cuff him |
| 35 | The Comedy of Errors | 12 | This comedy opens in the palace of the Duke of Ephesus, make no mistake |
| 36 | The Winter's Tale | 12 | Operas based on this comedy include "Hermione", "Perdita" & "Ein Wintermaerchen" |
| 37 | Puck | 11 | This chef was born one dreamy midsummer in Austria in 1949 |
| 38 | Cordelia | 10 | She tells her 2 sisters, "I know what you are; and like a sister am most loath to call your faults as they are named" |
| 39 | Timon of Athens | 9 | Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I wrote the opera "Timone Misantropo", based on this play |
| 40 | Love's Labour's Lost | 9 | Navarre, celibacy!Rosaline?Re-plan! |
| 41 | Henry VIII | 8 | This historical play dramatizes the events which led to England's break with the Roman Catholic church |
| 42 | Gertrude | 8 | Toward the end of the play, she thought Hamlet was starting to "GET RUDER" |
| 43 | Cressida | 8 | She two-times Troilus with Diomedes |
| 44 | All's Well That Ends Well | 8 | The epilogue to this play says, "The king's a beggar now the play is done. All is well ended..." |
| 45 | Marc Antony | 8 | "Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war", he said, angered at the murder of Caesar |
| 46 | Polonius | 7 | Laertes' long-winded father, who advised him to be neither a borrower nor a lender |
| 47 | Pericles | 7 | Title character who says, "When I did fly from Tyre, I left behind an ancient substitute" |
| 48 | Macduff | 7 | Having been told "Lay on", he really "layed on" Macbeth |
| 49 | Caliban | 7 | The name of this character in "The Tempest" may be a corruption of "cannibal" |
| 50 | Titania | 6 | In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" she says, "Methought I was enamored of an ass" |