Gul Mohar English Class 7 Chapter 12 The Play

Gul Mohar Edition 9 Orient Blackswan

Gul Mohar English Chapter 12 The Play

Writer of the story - William Shakespeare

Question and Answers

Question 1: Where did the actors meet for the rehearsal? Why did they think it was a convenient place?
Answer: The actors met inside the wood. They thought it was a convenient place because the green plot could be their stage, the hawthorn-brake could serve as their green room and they could rehearse there as they would have to act in front of the Duke.

Question 2: Read and answer the questions:
“I see their knavery: This is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can.”
a) Who is the speaker? Why did he think the others were making an ass of him?
Answer: The speaker is Bottom. Puck changed his head into the head of an ass. When he re-entered according to his cue, the others were scared to see him with an ass’s head and ran away. They came back one by one to tell him that he was changed but Bottom did not believe or understand them. He thought they were trying to make a fool of him.

b) Was the speaker frightened?
Answer: Yes, Bottom was rather frightened because he could not understand what was happening - why others were behaving so strangely and running away from him.

c) What did the speaker decide to do? Why?
Answer: Bottom decided to not move from the place, no matter how oddly the others behaved. He decided to walk up and down right there and sing so that the others could hear him and know that he was not frightened.

Question 3: “A stranger Pyramus than ever played here”. Who was Puck referring to? What mistake did the actor make?
Answer: Puck was referring to Bottom who was playing Pyramus. Bottom mixed up the words ‘odours’ and ‘odious’ while saying his lines.

Question 4: Puck affected Bottom both directly and indirectly. How did he do that?
Answer: Puck changed Bottom’s head into that of an ass. That was how he affected him directly. The other actors were scared of Bottom and ran away. Puck also dropped the juice of a magical flower on Titania’s eyelids while she was sleeping. Because of this, when Titania woke up and saw Bottom, she immediately fell in love with him. She insisted on keeping him with her. That was how Puck affected Bottom indirectly.

Question 5: Read and answer the questions:
“Methinks, mistress, you should have a little reason for that: and yet to say the truth, reason and love hardly keep company together now-a-days.”
a) Who was speaking to whom? When?
Answer: Bottom was speaking to Titania. He said this when Titania woke up, saw him and told him that she had fallen in love with him.

b) “…….You should have little reason.” For what? (What has the listener just said?)
Answer: The listener, Titania, had said that she had fallen in love with Bottom and in reply, he said that she should have little reason for falling in love with him.

c) What did the speaker mean by ‘reason and love hardly keep company’?
Answer: Bottom meant that love rarely follows reason or logic.

Question 6: “Be kind and courteous to this gentleman”. Which gentleman does this refer to? How should Titania’s fairies be kind and courteous to him?
Answer: This refers to Bottom. Titania told Bottom that her fairies would attend on him, bring jewels from the depth of the sea and sing to him while he slept on pressed flowers. She asked her fairies to be kind and polite to him. She told them to hop, dance and amuse him as he walked; feed him different fruits like apricots, dewberries, purple grapes, green figs and mulberries; and to bow to him. Then, she asked them to lead him to her bower.