artcetera

THE WEEKLY QUIZ THAT TESTS YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE ARTS

1 Connect a dirge by John Skelton (1460?-1529) with the early films of Dirk Bogarde.

2. What international criminal organisation was the main target of UNCLE's activities?

3 Who wrote the long autobiographical poem "Briggflatts"?

4 What pair, supposedly, hovers over shady groves, and with leaves and flowers does cover the friendless bodies of unburied men?

5 How is the name of the imaginary state of Nephelococcygia usually translated (from the ancient Greek)?

6 After The Maltese Falcon, a spoofy sequel featuring George Segal as Sam Spade Jr: what's the film?

ANSWERS:

1 You can do it with a sparrow: Skelton wrote a lament for Philip Sparrow ("Whom Gyb our cat hath slayne"), sometimes called "The Sparrow's Dirge"; Dr Simon Sparrow was the name of Bogarde's character in all those Doctor films (Doctor in the House, etc). 2. THRUSH (in The Man from UNCLE). 3 Basil Bunting. 4 The robin red-breast and the wren, according to Cornelia's lament in Webster's The White Devil. 5 Cloud-cuckoo-land (in Aristophanes' The Birds). 6 The Black Bird (1975) - a movie nobody would blame you for forgetting.