The Taming of the Shrew
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50 free The Taming of the Shrew trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies and still one of his most argued over. A suitor out for a fortune sets himself to marry the sharpest tongue in town, her mild younger sister is besieged by admirers in disguise, and the whole story is staged as a trick played on a drunkard. Audiences have been debating its final speech ever since. This quiz covers the play from the Induction to the last banquet. Expect questions on the characters and who is pretending to be whom, the famous lines and who speaks them, the courtship and the taming scenes, and the films, musicals and sequels the comedy has inspired. It works as a practice quiz for students reading the play act by act, a ready multiple-choice check for teachers, and a fair test for anyone who knows the story from the stage or from one of its many screen versions.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which teen film starring Julia Stiles resets The Taming of the Shrew in an American high school?
10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate About You gave Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt their breakthrough roles, with Stiles as the sharp-tongued Kat Stratford.
Q 02Which Cole Porter musical about actors staging The Taming of the Shrew takes its title from Petruchio's words?
Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate won the first Tony Award for Best Musical. Its plot follows a divorced pair of actors who feud backstage while playing the leads, and its three title words are ones Petruchio says to his bride.
Q 03Which famous married couple played Katherina and Petruchio in the 1967 film of The Taming of the Shrew?
Taylor and Burton
Taylor and Burton were both nominated for BAFTAs for their performances. Elizabeth Taylor, who had never acted in Shakespeare before, also helped to produce the film.
Q 04In which Italian university city do Katherina and Bianca live with their father in The Taming of the Shrew?
Padua
Padua is praised by the newly arrived Lucentio as a nursery of arts. He has come there to study, but falls for Bianca on sight instead.
Q 05In The Taming of the Shrew, what does Petruchio force Katherina to call the sun shining overhead?
The moon
The moon it is, she says at last, and when he changes his mind she agrees it is the sun again, promising that whatever he names it shall be so for her.
Q 06At the final banquet of The Taming of the Shrew, what do the three new husbands bet on?
Whose wife is most obedient
Whose wife is most obedient is settled when each man sends for his bride and only Katherina comes. Petruchio wins the hundred-crown wager, having scoffed at the twenty first proposed.
Q 07Petruchio calls his harsh treatment of Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew a way to kill a wife with what?
Kindness
Kindness is his ironic word for it. Every cruelty is dressed up as loving care, on the excuse that nothing in the house is good enough for her.
Q 08In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio wears Katherina down by denying her food and what else?
Sleep
Sleep is the other weapon. He plans to fling the pillows about and rail all night, complaining that the bed has been badly made.
Q 09In the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew, a prank convinces the drunken Christopher Sly that he is what?
A nobleman
A nobleman is what the servants insist he has always been, telling him that his years as a poor drunkard were only a long illness and a bad dream.
Q 10In The Taming of the Shrew, what must happen before Bianca's father will let any suitor marry her?
Her elder sister weds
Her elder sister weds first, or nobody gets Bianca. The rule sends her rival suitors searching together for a man bold enough to take on Katherina.
Q 11Which gentleman is the father of Katherina and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew?
Baptista
Baptista Minola treats his daughters' marriages as business, promising Bianca to whichever suitor can guarantee her the largest settlement.
Q 12Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew says he was born in which northern Italian city?
Verona
Verona, also the city of Romeo and Juliet, is where he was born, the son of old Antonio. He says he left it after his father's death to see the world.
Q 13What does Petruchio openly say he is looking for in a wife on arriving in The Taming of the Shrew?
Wealth
Wealth is all he asks, he says. A bride may be as old, plain or sharp-tongued as she likes, so long as her fortune is big enough.
Q 21Which servant spends most of The Taming of the Shrew impersonating his master, Lucentio?
Tranio
Tranio swaps clothes with his master in the opening act and plays the young gentleman so well that he outbids a rival for Bianca's hand.
Q 22Under which false name does Lucentio pose as a schoolmaster to woo Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew?
Cambio
Cambio is the name he keeps until the last act, when Bianca tells her astonished father that Cambio is changed into Lucentio.
Q 23Lucentio declares his love to Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew while pretending to translate which language?
Latin
Latin verses are his cover: between the phrases he slips in who he really is, and Bianca replies in the same way that she does not yet trust him.
Q 14Which instrument does Katherina smash over her music teacher's head in The Taming of the Shrew?
A lute
A lute goes over his head after he corrects her fingering, and he staggers back to report that his skull went straight through the instrument.
Q 15At their first meeting in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio calls the furious Katherina which stinging creature?
A wasp
A wasp is his word for her, and she warns him to beware her sting. The whole scene is a rapid duel of puns in which each line caps the one before.
Q 16During his own wedding in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio strikes which person so hard that he falls?
The priest
The priest is cuffed just as he stoops to pick up his dropped book. The ceremony takes place offstage, so the audience hears about it from a shocked onlooker.
Q 17What does Petruchio refuse to stay for straight after marrying Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew?
The bridal feast
The bridal feast goes ahead without the bride and groom. He insists he must leave at once and carries Katherina off, pretending to rescue her from thieves.
Q 18In The Taming of the Shrew, which excuse does Petruchio give for throwing out the hungry Katherina's supper?
The meat is burnt
The meat is burnt, he claims, and burnt food breeds anger, which two hot-tempered people should avoid. She protests that it was perfectly good.
Q 19Petruchio compares taming Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew to training which bird?
A falcon
A falcon, he explains, must be kept sharp and empty until she stoops to the lure, so his bride will go without supper until she gives way.
Q 20Which two tradesmen bring Katherina finery that Petruchio picks apart in The Taming of the Shrew?
A tailor and a haberdasher
A tailor and a haberdasher arrive with the outfit he ordered for her, and he rejects every piece of it, mocking one sleeve as carved like an apple tart.
Q 24Which friend of Petruchio gives up on Bianca and marries a widow instead in The Taming of the Shrew?
Hortensio
Hortensio swears off Bianca after catching her kissing her tutor, then sets off for Petruchio's house to watch how a wife is tamed.
Q 25Which elderly suitor of Bianca mutters that Katherina is too rough for him in The Taming of the Shrew?
Gremio
Gremio is the old neighbour who brings Bianca a tutor to win her father's favour, never guessing that the tutor is a rival in disguise.
Q 26Which servant of Petruchio teases the starving Katherina with dishes he never brings in The Taming of the Shrew?
Grumio
Grumio offers her tripe, then beef with mustard, finding a reason to withhold each, until she beats him for feeding her on the mere names of food.
Q 27In The Taming of the Shrew, which old traveller does Katherina greet as a budding young maiden at Petruchio's command?
Lucentio's father
Lucentio's father, old Vincentio, is on his way to visit his son when she hails him as a fresh young girl, then blames her mistake on the dazzling sun.
Q 28What excuse does Bianca send back when Lucentio summons her in the final scene of The Taming of the Shrew?
She is busy
She is busy and cannot come, says the supposedly gentle sister. The widow does worse, telling her new husband to come to her instead.
Q 29At Petruchio's command in the final scene of The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina throws down which item?
Her cap
Her cap comes off at once when he calls it a bauble that does not suit her, to the disgust of the widow, who calls it a silly thing to be brought to.
Q 30At the end of her final speech in The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina offers to place her hand beneath what?
Her husband's foot
Her husband's foot is where she tells the other wives to put their hands, as a sign of duty. In one early film version she delivers the speech with a wink to her sister.