Quizzes

Name That Quote: King Lear or King Kong?

Test your knowledge of Shakespeare and more modern verse.

King Lear (starring Glenda Jackson) and King Kong are both part of the 2018-2019 Broadway season.
King Lear (starring Glenda Jackson) and King Kong are both part of the 2018-2019 Broadway season.
(© Manuel Harlan and Joan Marcus)
This Broadway season features both the Glenda Jackson-led revival of William Shakespeare's King Lear, and the action-adventure megamusical King Kong — two kings, decidedly unalike in dignity, but what about language? While the critics unanimously agreed that the libretto of King Kong wasn't exactly Shakespeare, can you tell the difference? Test your knowledge of the Bard with this quiz, which asks you to attribute the following 10 quotes to one of two shows: King Kong or King Lear. In the words of Lear (we'll give you this one for free), "Who is it that can tell me who I am?" (Answers are at the bottom of the page below the photos.) Good luck!


1. "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!"

2. "Nothing but hopelessness left
Mutiny lives on our breath."

3. "Nothing will come of nothing."

4. "Better to be blind."

5. "Now sweet sleep has crowned you."

6. "Let me ask you one word in private."

7. "The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters."

8. "He fashioned every creature
Some to eat
And some to eat ya."

9. "In something extraordinary I
Believed and found my humanity."

10. "Grrrraaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!"


Glenda Jackson starred in King Lear at London's Old Vic in 2016. She reprises the role on Broadway in 2019 in a new production directed by Sam Gold.
Glenda Jackson starred in King Lear at London's Old Vic in 2016. She reprises the role on Broadway in 2019 in a new production directed by Sam Gold.
(© Manuel Harlan)
King Kong opened on Broadway on November 8.
King Kong opened on Broadway on November 8.
(© Matthew Murphy)

ANSWERS:

1. Lear
2. Kong
3. Lear
4. Kong
5. Kong
6. Lear
7. Lear
8. Kong
9. Kong
10. Kong and Lear (as performed by Anthony Hopkins)