Chapter 27 - Knights and Squires Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 27 - Knights and Squires
What is Stubb's rank aboard the Pequod?
Second mate.
Where is Stubb originally from?
Cape Cod. He is called a Cape-Cod-man.
What object is Stubb's most defining characteristic?
His short, black little pipe, which is described as one of the regular features of his face.
How does Stubb handle danger during a whale hunt?
With calm indifference. He hums tunes while fighting and handles his lance as casually as a tinker with his hammer.
What does Melville say Stubb's tobacco smoke might serve as?
A sort of disinfecting agent against the nameless miseries of mortal life.
What is Flask's rank aboard the Pequod?
Third mate.
Where is Flask from?
Tisbury, in Martha's Vineyard.
How does Flask view whales?
As personal enemies who have hereditarily affronted him. He reduces them to a species of magnified mouse.
What is Flask's nickname and why?
King-Post, because his short, square build resembles the timber of that name used to brace Arctic whaling ships.
What does Melville mean when he says Flask was one of the "wrought" nails?
He was made to clinch tight and last long, meaning he was tough and enduring.
Who is Queequeg's headsman (the mate he serves)?
Starbuck, the chief mate.
Who is Tashtego and what is his heritage?
An unmixed Indian from Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, descended from proud warrior hunters of New England.
Which mate does Tashtego serve as harpooneer?
Stubb, the second mate.
Who is Daggoo?
A gigantic, coal-black African who voluntarily shipped aboard a whaler in his youth. He stands six feet five.
Which mate does Daggoo serve, and what contrast does this create?
Flask. The contrast between the towering Daggoo and the short Flask is likened to a chess-man standing beside a fortress.
What is an Isolato, as Melville defines it?
Someone not acknowledging the common continent of men, living on a separate continent of his own.
What historical figure does Melville reference to describe the Pequod's diverse crew?
Anacharsis Clootz, a Prussian baron who led a deputation of world nationalities before the French National Assembly.
According to Melville, what is the relationship between American-born sailors and foreign sailors in whaling?
The native American provides the brains (officers), while the rest of the world supplies the muscles (common sailors).
What metaphor gives Chapter 27 its title?
The medieval chivalric metaphor of knights (mates/headsmen) and squires (harpooneers).
Who is Pip and what instrument does he play?
A Black boy from Alabama who beats a tambourine on the Pequod's forecastle.
What does the foreshadowing about Pip at the end of the chapter suggest?
That Pip will meet a tragic fate. Melville says he never came back and was called a coward on earth but hailed a hero in heaven.
Where do outward-bound Nantucket whalers frequently stop to augment their crews?
The Azores, where they recruit hardy peasants from the rocky shores.
What does Melville compare death to, from Stubb's perspective?
A call of the watch to tumble aloft and get to work on something he would find out about when he obeyed the order.