25 Moderate to Hard MCQs on History of English Literature

1. Who is considered the first named English poet?
   a) Chaucer
   b) Caedmon
   c) Bede
   d) Cynewulf
   Answer: b) Caedmon
   Explanation: Caedmon, a 7th-century monk, is credited as the earliest English poet whose name is known.
2. Which poem is associated with the Norman Conquest of 1066?
   a) Beowulf
   b) The Wanderer
   c) The Battle of Maldon
   d) The Song of Roland
   Answer: d) The Song of Roland
   Explanation: Though French, it reflects the Norman influence that came to England post-1066.
3. Which of the following poets is most associated with the term “metaphysical poetry”?
   a) Ben Jonson
   b) John Donne
   c) Edmund Spenser
   d) Philip Sidney
   Answer: b) John Donne
   Explanation: Donne’s intellectual and spiritual style defines metaphysical poetry.
4. What is the main literary work by Sir Thomas Malory?
   a) Le Roman de la Rose
   b) Morte d’Arthur
   c) Troilus and Criseyde
   d) The Vision of Piers Plowman
   Answer: b) Morte d’Arthur
   Explanation: It is a major prose retelling of the Arthurian legends.
5. The term “Renaissance” in England is often linked with which monarch’s reign?
   a) Henry VII
   b) Mary I
   c) Elizabeth I
   d) James I
   Answer: c) Elizabeth I
   Explanation: Elizabeth’s reign saw the flourishing of drama, poetry, and humanism.
6. Who introduced the sonnet form into English literature?
   a) Philip Sidney
   b) Geoffrey Chaucer
   c) Edmund Spenser
   d) Thomas Wyatt
   Answer: d) Thomas Wyatt
   Explanation: Wyatt and Surrey adapted the Petrarchan sonnet into English.
7. Which play is considered the first English tragedy?
   a) Gorboduc
   b) Doctor Faustus
   c) Tamburlaine
   d) Hamlet
   Answer: a) Gorboduc
   Explanation: Written by Norton and Sackville in 1561, it’s the first known English tragedy.
8. “The Faerie Queene” is a celebration of whose rule?
   a) Mary Queen of Scots
   b) Henry VIII
   c) Elizabeth I
   d) Charles I
   Answer: c) Elizabeth I
   Explanation: Spenser’s allegorical epic glorifies Queen Elizabeth I.
9. Which group opposed the theaters during the English Civil War?
   a) Tories
   b) Roundheads
   c) Cavaliers
   d) Chartists
   Answer: b) Roundheads
   Explanation: Puritan Roundheads considered theater immoral and banned it.
10. Who is the author of "The Pilgrim’s Progress"?
    a) Thomas Browne
    b) John Bunyan
    c) George Herbert
    d) William Law
    Answer: b) John Bunyan
    Explanation: This Christian allegory was written during his imprisonment.
11. The “Augustan Age” in English literature refers to the reign of:
    a) Charles II
    b) George I
    c) William III
    d) Queen Anne
    Answer: d) Queen Anne
    Explanation: Writers like Pope and Swift emulated classical ideals during her reign.
12. Which writer is associated with the “stream of consciousness” technique?
    a) Thomas Hardy
    b) Virginia Woolf
    c) D.H. Lawrence
    d) Ford Madox Ford
    Answer: b) Virginia Woolf
    Explanation: Woolf explored characters’ inner thoughts using this narrative method.
13. Which of these poets did NOT belong to the Romantic era?
    a) Percy Shelley
    b) Robert Browning
    c) William Wordsworth
    d) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Answer: b) Robert Browning
    Explanation: Browning belonged to the Victorian era.
14. Who coined the phrase “willing suspension of disbelief”?
    a) T.S. Eliot
    b) Samuel Johnson
    c) S.T. Coleridge
    d) Matthew Arnold
    Answer: c) S.T. Coleridge
    Explanation: Coleridge used it to explain engagement with imaginative literature.
15. In which year was the Printing Press introduced in England?
    a) 1476
    b) 1454
    c) 1509
    d) 1492
    Answer: a) 1476
    Explanation: William Caxton introduced the press in Westminster.
16. “The School for Scandal” is a famous play by:
    a) William Congreve
    b) Oliver Goldsmith
    c) Richard Sheridan
    d) John Dryden
    Answer: c) Richard Sheridan
    Explanation: A high point in Restoration comedy of manners.
17. Which literary form is Aphra Behn associated with?
    a) Religious prose
    b) Political essays
    c) Early novel
    d) Elegies
    Answer: c) Early novel
    Explanation: Her novel “Oroonoko” is one of the earliest English novels.
18. Which poet laureate wrote “In Memoriam A.H.H.”?
    a) Robert Bridges
    b) Alfred Tennyson
    c) Thomas Gray
    d) John Masefield
    Answer: b) Alfred Tennyson
    Explanation: It mourns the death of his friend Arthur Hallam.
19. What type of play is Everyman?
    a) Tragedy
    b) Morality play
    c) Chronicle play
    d) Romantic comedy
    Answer: b) Morality play
    Explanation: It personifies virtues and vices to deliver religious lessons.
20. Which poet is known for the “Sprung Rhythm” technique?
    a) Tennyson
    b) W.B. Yeats
    c) Gerard Manley Hopkins
    d) Matthew Arnold
    Answer: c) Gerard Manley Hopkins
    Explanation: His technique mimicked natural speech rhythms.
21. Which literary group was formed by Woolf, Keynes, Forster, and others?
    a) The Inklings
    b) The Bloomsbury Group
    c) The Lake Poets
    d) The Decadents
    Answer: b) The Bloomsbury Group
    Explanation: They were intellectuals who influenced literature, art, and politics.
22. What was the major literary output of the Anglo-Saxon period?
    a) Lyrical ballads
    b) Religious prose and epic poetry
    c) Sonnet sequences
    d) Metaphysical poetry
    Answer: b) Religious prose and epic poetry
    Explanation: Exemplified by works like Beowulf and sermons by Aelfric.
23. Which of these novels is considered an example of a Victorian “condition of England” novel?
    a) Wuthering Heights
    b) Mary Barton
    c) Jane Eyre
    d) Middlemarch
    Answer: b) Mary Barton
    Explanation: Gaskell’s novel focuses on industrialization and class conflict.
24. Who is the author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy"?
    a) Thomas Browne
    b) Robert Burton
    c) Jeremy Taylor
    d) Francis Bacon
    Answer: b) Robert Burton
    Explanation: A vast Renaissance exploration of psychology and emotion.
25. What is the significance of the year 1066 in English literature?
    a) Printing press invented
    b) Beowulf composed
    c) Norman Conquest – French influences in language and literature
    d) Shakespeare’s first play
    Answer: c) Norman Conquest – French influences in language and literature
    Explanation: It led to a significant transformation in vocabulary, style, and themes.