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History of English Literature – The Age of Johnson – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Age of Johnson roughly belongs to: (UGC NET / SET / PGTRB)
A) Early 18th century
B) Mid to late 18th century
C) 14th century
D) Early 20th century
Ans: B) Mid to late 18th century
2. The Age of Johnson is named after: (SET)
A) Ben Jonson
B) Samuel Johnson
C) James Johnson
D) Robert Johnson
Ans: B) Samuel Johnson
3. Samuel Johnson is especially famous as a: (UGC NET)
A) Dramatist only
B) Lexicographer, critic, and essayist
C) Epic poet only
D) Ballad writer only
Ans: B) Lexicographer, critic, and essayist
4. The Age of Johnson is often considered part of the: (PGTRB)
A) Augustan / Neo-classical tradition
B) Romantic movement only
C) Medieval age
D) Elizabethan age
Ans: A) Augustan / Neo-classical tradition
5. The Age of Johnson is important because it also marks a: (SET)
A) Purely medieval revival
B) Transition toward Romanticism
C) Complete rejection of prose
D) Return to mystery plays
Ans: B) Transition toward Romanticism
6. Samuel Johnson’s most famous lexicographical work is: (UGC NET)
A) A Grammar of English
B) Dictionary of the English Language
C) Johnson’s Encyclopaedia
D) English Synonyms
Ans: B) Dictionary of the English Language
7. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary was published in: (PGTRB)
A) 1700
B) 1755
C) 1789
D) 1800
Ans: B) 1755
8. Samuel Johnson’s periodical essays appeared in: (SET)
A) The Tatler and The Spectator
B) The Rambler and The Idler
C) The Examiner only
D) The Guardian only
Ans: B) The Rambler and The Idler
9. The Rambler is associated with: (UGC NET)
A) Steele
B) Addison
C) Samuel Johnson
D) Defoe
Ans: C) Samuel Johnson
10. Johnson’s prose style is often described as: (PGTRB)
A) Very colloquial and plain only
B) Balanced, weighty, and dignified
C) Fragmented and obscure
D) Highly slangy
Ans: B) Balanced, weighty, and dignified
11. Samuel Johnson’s famous critical work is: (SET)
A) Biographia Literaria
B) Lives of the Poets
C) Defence of Poesy
D) Essay of Dramatic Poesy
Ans: B) Lives of the Poets
12. Lives of the Poets is important as a work of: (UGC NET)
A) Drama
B) Literary biography and criticism
C) Epic poetry
D) Travel writing
Ans: B) Literary biography and criticism
13. Johnson’s only novel is: (PGTRB)
A) Pamela
B) Tom Jones
C) Rasselas
D) Evelina
Ans: C) Rasselas
14. Rasselas is best described as a: (SET)
A) Comic novel
B) Philosophical tale
C) Gothic romance
D) Historical chronicle
Ans: B) Philosophical tale
15. Samuel Johnson’s poem The Vanity of Human Wishes is: (UGC NET)
A) A satire in verse
B) A pastoral elegy
C) A sonnet
D) A masque
Ans: A) A satire in verse
16. Johnson’s London is an imitation of: (PGTRB)
A) Homer
B) Juvenal
C) Virgil
D) Horace only
Ans: B) Juvenal
17. The Age of Johnson highly valued: (SET)
A) Reason and moral instruction
B) Wild emotion only
C) Medieval mysticism
D) Free verse experimentation
Ans: A) Reason and moral instruction
18. Samuel Johnson was a close friend and subject of biography by: (UGC NET)
A) Thomas Gray
B) James Boswell
C) Oliver Goldsmith
D) Edmund Burke
Ans: B) James Boswell
19. Boswell is famous for writing: (PGTRB)
A) The Life of Samuel Johnson
B) The Deserted Village
C) The School for Scandal
D) The Vicar of Wakefield
Ans: A) The Life of Samuel Johnson
20. Boswell’s Life of Johnson is important as a masterpiece of: (SET)
A) Epic
B) Biography
C) Satirical drama
D) Pastoral lyric
Ans: B) Biography
21. Another major writer of the age was: (UGC NET)
A) Oliver Goldsmith
B) John Milton
C) Ben Jonson
D) Philip Sidney
Ans: A) Oliver Goldsmith
22. Oliver Goldsmith wrote: (PGTRB)
A) The Deserted Village
B) Lycidas
C) Absalom and Achitophel
D) Samson Agonistes
Ans: A) The Deserted Village
23. Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield is a: (SET)
A) Novel
B) Tragedy
C) Satirical poem
D) Epic
Ans: A) Novel
24. Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer is a: (UGC NET)
A) Pastoral poem
B) Comedy
C) Elegy
D) Mock-epic
Ans: B) Comedy
25. Another important writer of sensibility in the age was: (PGTRB)
A) Thomas Gray
B) Christopher Marlowe
C) John Dryden
D) George Herbert
Ans: A) Thomas Gray
26. Thomas Gray is famous for: (SET)
A) Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
B) The Dunciad
C) The Rape of the Lock
D) The Beggar’s Opera
Ans: A) Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
27. Gray’s Elegy is important because it anticipates: (UGC NET)
A) Restoration wit
B) Romantic sensibility
C) Medieval allegory
D) Metaphysical conceit
Ans: B) Romantic sensibility
28. Another “precursor of Romanticism” in the age was: (PGTRB)
A) James Thomson
B) Alexander Pope
C) Dryden
D) Congreve
Ans: A) James Thomson
29. James Thomson wrote: (SET)
A) The Seasons
B) Rasselas
C) Robinson Crusoe
D) Pamela
Ans: A) The Seasons
30. The growth of the English novel in this age is represented by: (UGC NET)
A) Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne
B) Shakespeare and Marlowe
C) Donne and Herbert
D) Dryden and Pope
Ans: A) Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne
31. Samuel Richardson wrote: (PGTRB)
A) Pamela
B) Tom Jones
C) Tristram Shandy
D) Humphry Clinker
Ans: A) Pamela
32. Henry Fielding wrote: (SET)
A) Pamela
B) Tom Jones
C) Clarissa
D) Roderick Random
Ans: B) Tom Jones
33. Laurence Sterne is known for: (UGC NET)
A) Tristram Shandy
B) The School for Scandal
C) The Beggar’s Opera
D) Essay on Man
Ans: A) Tristram Shandy
34. Tobias Smollett is associated with: (PGTRB)
A) Humphry Clinker
B) Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
C) The Seasons
D) The Rambler
Ans: A) Humphry Clinker
35. A major dramatic figure of the age was: (SET)
A) Richard Sheridan
B) John Milton
C) Ben Jonson
D) Thomas Kyd
Ans: A) Richard Sheridan
36. Sheridan wrote: (UGC NET)
A) The School for Scandal
B) Volpone
C) She Stoops to Conquer
D) Doctor Faustus
Ans: A) The School for Scandal
37. The Age of Johnson valued prose that was: (PGTRB)
A) Balanced and moral
B) Entirely emotional
C) Purely symbolic
D) Medieval and alliterative
Ans: A) Balanced and moral
38. The age is especially important for the development of: (SET)
A) Prose, criticism, and the novel
B) Mystery plays
C) Epic drama only
D) Medieval chronicles
Ans: A) Prose, criticism, and the novel
39. The Age of Johnson is often regarded as a bridge between: (UGC NET)
A) Medieval and Renaissance literature
B) Neo-classicism and Romanticism
C) Elizabethan and Puritan literature
D) Victorian and Modern literature
Ans: B) Neo-classicism and Romanticism
40. Which pair is correctly matched? (PGTRB)
A) Johnson — Rasselas
B) Goldsmith — The Dunciad
C) Gray — The Rambler
D) Boswell — The Seasons
Ans: A) Johnson — Rasselas
41. Which statement is TRUE about the Age of Johnson? (SET)
A) It is mainly an age of medieval allegory
B) It is an age of prose, criticism, dictionary-making, and transitional poetry
C) It is the age of Shakespearean theatre
D) It has no novelists of importance
Ans: B) It is an age of prose, criticism, dictionary-making, and transitional poetry
42. Samuel Johnson’s literary importance lies especially in his: (UGC NET)
A) Role in criticism and prose style
B) Writing of heroic tragedies
C) Medieval alliterative poems
D) Mystery plays
Ans: A) Role in criticism and prose style
43. The Age of Johnson values literary qualities such as: (PGTRB)
A) Clarity, balance, and moral reflection
B) Excessive emotionalism only
C) Obscurity and fragmentation
D) Medieval symbolism only
Ans: A) Clarity, balance, and moral reflection
44. The age also saw a rise in: (SET)
A) Literary clubs and conversation culture
B) Mystery plays
C) Court masques
D) Medieval miracle drama
Ans: A) Literary clubs and conversation culture
45. Johnson’s circle included writers like: (UGC NET)
A) Boswell, Goldsmith, and Burke
B) Marlowe, Jonson, and Kyd
C) Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan
D) Pope, Dryden, and Congreve only
Ans: A) Boswell, Goldsmith, and Burke
46. Which statement best suits The Age of Johnson? (PGTRB)
A) It is purely a satirical age with no transition
B) It is an age of prose mastery, criticism, lexicography, and the growth of the novel
C) It is the age of Elizabethan romance
D) It is mainly the age of medieval poetry
Ans: B) It is an age of prose mastery, criticism, lexicography, and the growth of the novel
47. Which literary movement begins to appear strongly in the later part of the age? (SET)
A) Romanticism
B) Metaphysical poetry
C) Restoration comedy
D) Elizabethan drama
Ans: A) Romanticism
48. Which statement best suits Johnson’s literary character? (UGC NET)
A) Purely lyrical and subjective
B) Moral, intellectual, critical, and balanced
C) Mystical and obscure
D) Entirely dramatic
Ans: B) Moral, intellectual, critical, and balanced
49. Which statement best suits The Age of Johnson? (PGTRB)
A) It is an age of reason joined with growing sensibility
B) It is purely medieval in outlook
C) It is dominated by miracle plays
D) It rejects prose and criticism
Ans: A) It is an age of reason joined with growing sensibility
50. Which statement best describes The Age of Johnson? (UGC NET)
A) It is the mid-to-late 18th-century age centered on Samuel Johnson, prose, criticism, dictionary-making, biography, and the growth of the novel with transition toward Romanticism
B) It is the Renaissance age of Shakespearean theatre
C) It is the medieval age of Chaucer and Langland
D) It is the Romantic age of imagination and nature alone
Ans: A) It is the mid-to-late 18th-century age centered on Samuel Johnson, prose, criticism, dictionary-making, biography, and the growth of the novel with transition toward Romanticism
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