WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Read the extract below and answer the question:
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent I their fears,
And in conclusion, dumbly have broken off,
Not paying me a welcome…
The speaker is
- Helena
- Hermia
- Philostrate
-
Theseus
The correct answer is: D
Explanation
The lines in the extract are spoken by Theseus, the Duke of Athens, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this passage, Theseus is describing how scholars and learned men (great clerks) become nervous and tongue-tied in his presence, despite their attempts to prepare formal welcomes for him. This happens in Act V Scene I. Theseus addresses Hippolyta about the play that is about to be acted by Peter Qunince and the mechanicals.