Read this excerpt from John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." "Our two souls therefore, which are one./Though I must go, endure not yet/A breach, but an expansion/Like gold to airy thinness beat."

Which of these is the best interpretation of this passage?

A. Donne is using irony to trivialize the love between him and his wife.
B. Donne is using a conceit to describe the love between him and his wife.
C. Donne is using an understatement to stress the strength of his love for his wife,
D. Donne is using sarcasm to dismiss the love his wife has for him.

The Renaissance 1485-1660 Unit Test: Part A

1. Choose the word or phrase that best matches the word in italics.

She liked her new bedroom but did not care for the _hue_ of its walls.

C. color

2. "Seven years thou went lent to me, and I thee pay,/Exacted by thy fate, on the just day."

Which of these is nearest in meaning to the word _exacted_, as it is used in the passage above?

C. demanded and collected

3. "His utmost power with adverse power opposed/In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven..."

Which of these is nearest in meaning to the word _dubious_, as it is used in the passage about?

C. uncertain

Match the definitions to the words by filling in the correct letter (4-8)

4. entreat

E. to ask earnestly

5. hearkens

B. pay close attention to

6. lament

A. mourn; express one's grief

7. defray

D. pay a cost or expense

8. myriad

C. extremely large number

9. Read these lines, from The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd.

"But could youth last and love still breed,/Had joys no date, nor age no need,/Then these delights my mind might move/To live with thee and be thy love."

According to her words here, under what conditions would the nymph accept the shepherd's love?

A. if love lasted forever

10. "When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,/I all alone beweep my outcast state..."

What emotion is Shakespeare describing in these lines from Sonnet 29?

B. depression

11. "If this be error and upon me proved,/I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

What is the impact of these concluding lines from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116?

D. They underscore the conviction of everything stated before

12. In which excerpt from John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" does the speaker tell his wife why she should keep his departure a secret?

D. "...'Twere profanation of our joys/To tell the laity our love."

13. Read this excerpt from John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

"Our two souls therefore, which are one,/Though I must go, endure not yet/A breach, but an expansion,/Like gold to airy thinness beat."

Which of these is the best interpretation of this passage?

B. Donne is using a conceit to describe the love between him and his wife.

14. Which line best states the theme of John Donne's Holy Sonnet 10?

C. "...And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

15. "...when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language..."

Which of these is the best interpretation of this phrase from John Donne's Meditation 17?

A. It describes God's interaction with humankind.

16. "Farewell, tou child of my right hand..."

Which of these is the most accurate paraphrase of these words from Ben Jonson's "On My First Son"?

B. "Farewell, Ben..."

17. Which of these excerpts from Ben Jonson's "Song: To Celia" compares love to intoxication?

"Drink to me only with thine eyes,/And I will pledge with mine..."

18. "...Thousands at [God's] bidding speed/And post o'er land and ocean without rest:/They also serve who only stand and wait."

Which of these beliefs is expressed in this excerpt from John Milton's "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent"?

C. A person does not have to accomplish great things to serve God.

19. Read the excerpt from John Milton's Paradise Lost.

"Left him at large to his own dark designs,/That with reiterated crimes he might/Heap on himself dmnation, while he sought/Evil to others..."

These lines illustrate a belief in what concept?

D. free will

I hope this helps!