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Cervantes Quiz logo/pic thingy Cervantes Quiz

Careful! There may be more than one correct answer to each question, or
none at all!



1. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in the University city of

     a. Alcalá de Henares
     b. Madrid
     c. Salamanca

2. The nickname by which Cervantes was known was

     a. El ingenioso hidalgo de la Mancha
     b. El Monstruo de la Naturaleza
     c. El manco de Lepanto

3. The only authentic portrait of Cervantes was painted by

     a. Juan de Jáuregui
     b. William Kent
     c. El Greco

4. If Cervantes & Shakespeare decided to hang out together in Madrid, they   probably would have

     a. visited the Prado
     b. visited the Corral del Príncipe
     c. discussed Montemayor or Don Quixote over a beer

5. If Cervantes would have followed in his father’s footsteps,

     a. he would have been a government official
     b. he would have been a physician
     c. he would have been a bloodletter

6. Cervantes died satisfied that his literary reputation would rest forever on

     a. La Galatea
     b. Don Quijote de la Mancha
     c. Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

7. Which of the following is not true of Cervantes & Lope de Vega?

     a. Lope once borrowed Cervantes’ glasses to read a poem to a literary        academy
     b. Lope and Cervantes purchased the house of Góngora in order to evict him
     c. For years Lope & Cervantes wrote insulting poems to each other
     d. At one time, Cervantes and Lope were neighbors in Madrid

8. According to one modern critic, Don Quixote’s madness results from

     a. homoerotic feelings for Sancho Panza
     b. powerful incestuous desires for his niece
     c. Oedipal desires for his mother

9. Which of the following have nothing to do with Don Quixote?

     a. Orson Welles
     b. John Cleese and Robin Williams
     c. Cantinflas
     d. Gordon Lightfoot

10. Which of the following statements about Cervantes, all made by famous
   and reputable critics, is probably true?

     a. Cervantes was gay and avoided torture in captivity by engaging in        homosexual relations with one of his captors
     b. Cervantes was denied an administrative position in the New World because        he was of Jewish ancestry
     c. The sisters of Cervantes used his house in Valladolid to practice
       what amounted to prostitution

11. Cervantes went to Italy and became a soldier probably

     a. To avoid exile and the loss of his right hand for wounding a man
       in a duel
     b. To gain experience and adventures in the service of the crown
     c. To avoid being jailed in Sevilla over discrepancies with his accounts as        requisitioner for the Spanish Armada

12. Which of these sites in the city of Cervantes' birth will you both find
   and not find today?

     a. A prominent statue of Cervantes
     b. The house where Cervantes was born
     c. The church of Santa María la Mayor, where Cervantes was baptized

13. Which of his novels did Cervantes repeatedly promise to continue, even
     shortly before his death?

     a. La Galatea
     b. Don Quijote de la Mancha
     c. Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

14. Who is not the author of Don Quixote?

     a. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
     b. Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda
     c. Francis Bacon

15. What does Fernández de Avellaneda say of Cervantes in his prologue?

     a. He is complaining, gossipy, impatient and short-tempered
     b. His Don Quixote is boastful and offensive to its readers
     c. He is a soldier as old in years as he is youthful in courage, with more        tongue than hands
     d. he is as old as the castle of Cervantes, and is annoyed by everybody and        everything

16. If Don Quixote was indeed conceived in a prison in Seville, why was
   Cervantes there?

     a. He was implicated in the death of Ezpeleta, mortally wounded in a duel        outside of Cervantes' house
     b. He had insufficient funds to cover the amount he owed to the Exchequer        for the provisions collected in Andalusia
     c. He wounded Antonio de Sigura in a duel in Madrid
     d. He had been excommunicated due to his dealings in Andalusia

17. The ransom asked for the freedom of Cervantes while captive in Algiers was so    high because

     a. He tried to escape so many times and organized some plots with fellow        prisoners
     b. He carried letters of recommendation from high military leaders
     c. He was sentenced to 2,000 strokes of the lash for a failed escape attempt

18. The really weird thing about Cervantes' marriage to Catalina de Salazar was

     a. He was nearly 20 years her senior
     b. He already had a daughter with Ana Franca
     c. He rarely lived with his wife
     d. He shared his apartment in Valladolid with his wife, his sisters and his illicit daughter


© 1998 Quiz composed for The Barcelona Review by Dr. John T. Cull, Associate Professor, Dept. of Spanish, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts

ANSWERS? Por favor, my cabeza is verily giving me a dolor


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