Q 01/05

Genesis never names the forbidden fruit, but which fruit does Milton call it in Paradise Lost?

A) A fig

B) An apple

C) A pomegranate

D) A grape

Answer · why

B) An apple

An apple: the poem names it twice, once when the fallen archangel boasts in Hell that he ruined mankind 'with an apple'. The idea is often traced to a...

Q 02/05

Paradise Lost is written in which metrical form?

A) Heroic couplets

B) Blank verse

C) Terza rima

D) Spenserian stanzas

Answer · why

B) Blank verse

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. A note added for puzzled readers explains 'why the poem rhymes not', and in it Milton dismisses rhyme as 't...

Q 03/05

The house in Bread Street where Milton was born was destroyed in which event?

A) The Blitz

B) The Gordon Riots

C) The Great Fire

D) The Civil War

Answer · why

C) The Great Fire

The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed it the year before Paradise Lost went on sale. Milton still owned the house, and losing it cut his income.

Q 04/05

Milton's father made his living in which profession?

A) Goldsmith

B) Scrivener

C) Vintner

D) Physician

Answer · why

B) Scrivener

Scrivener: he drew up wills and contracts and lent out money, a business that paid for his son's private tutors and long years of study. He was also a...

Q 05/05

Which London school did Milton attend before he went to Cambridge?

A) St Paul's School

B) Westminster School

C) Merchant Taylors' School

D) Charterhouse

Answer · why

A) St Paul's School

St Paul's School took him in at about the age of twelve, alongside lessons from private tutors at home. He studied so hard that he seldom went to bed ...