Quiz Quiz: Buckets of ducats in Shakespeare’s plays March 31, 2017 | By Shakespeare & Beyond Test your knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays! Take the quiz and challenge your friends. Buckets of Ducats Shakespeare characters love talking about their ducats, which were commonly used coins in Shakespeare’s day. Can you match the money quote to the play it comes from? No profit but the name “Truly to speak, and with no addition, / We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name. / To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; / Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole / A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.” I would have my bond “If every ducat in six thousand ducats / Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, / I would not draw them. I would have my bond.” A dram of poison “Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor. / Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have / A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear / As will disperse itself through all the veins, / That the life-weary taker may fall dead, / And that the trunk may be discharged of breath / As violently as hasty powder fired / Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.” A high-stakes bet “Yours, whom in constancy you think stands so safe. I will lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring that, commend me to the court where your lady is, with no more advantage than the opportunity of a second conference, and I will bring from thence that honor of hers which you imagine so reserved.” A mix-up, with money “This purse of ducats I received from you, / And Dromio my man did bring them me. / I see we still did meet each other’s man, / And I was ta’en for him, and he for me, / And thereupon these errors are arose.” Bidding for a bride “If I may have your daughter to my wife, / I’ll leave her houses three or four as good, / Within rich Pisa walls, as any one / Old Signior Gremio has in Padua, / Besides two thousand ducats by the year / Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure.— / What, have I pinched you, Signior Gremio?” Rich villains BORACHIO: Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats. CONRADE: Is it possible that any villainy should be so dear? BORACHIO: Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villainy should be so rich. For when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will. Brush up your Shakespeare Interested in learning more? Read all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems at Folger Digital Texts. Rich in Knowledge You know your Shakespeare! Read all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems at Folger Digital Texts. Quiz Maker – powered by Riddle Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Name (required) Mail (required) (will not be published) Website