Chapter 90 - Heads or Tails Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 90 - Heads or Tails

What legal text does the Latin epigraph at the beginning of Chapter 90 come from?

  • Plowdon's Commentaries
  • Bracton's Laws of England
  • Blackstone's Commentaries
  • Prynne's Queen-Gold

Under the old English law, who receives the head of a captured whale?

  • The Queen
  • The Lord Warden
  • The King
  • The mariners who caught it

Where did the mariners in Ishmael's anecdote capture their whale?

  • The coast of Nantucket
  • Near one of the Cinque Ports
  • Off the coast of France
  • In the Pacific Ocean

What book does the gentleman lay upon the whale's head when he seizes it?

  • Bracton's Laws of England
  • The Bible
  • A copy of Blackstone
  • Prynne's treatise on Queen-Gold

What three-word phrase does the gentleman repeat to every plea from the mariners?

  • "The law says."
  • "It is his."
  • "I refuse you."
  • "Fast-Fish law."

Who was the Duke that received the money from the seized whale?

  • The Duke of York
  • The Duke of Marlborough
  • The Duke of Wellington
  • The Duke of Norfolk

How much did the mariners expect to earn from the whale they caught?

  • £50
  • £100
  • £150
  • £200

What did the Duke reply when a clergyman wrote to him about the mariners' plight?

  • He returned half the money
  • He ignored the letter entirely
  • He told the clergyman to stop meddling in other people's business
  • He offered the mariners employment

According to Plowdon, why does the captured whale belong to the King and Queen?

  • Because whaling is a royal industry
  • Because of the whale's superior excellence
  • Because the crown funded the expedition
  • Because whales are endangered creatures

What error does Ishmael find in William Prynne's reasoning about the Queen's tail?

  • Prynne confused whales with dolphins
  • Prynne said whalebone is in the tail, but it is actually in the head
  • Prynne attributed the law to the wrong monarch
  • Prynne incorrectly dated the statute

What are the two animals classified as "royal fish" under English law?

  • Whale and dolphin
  • Whale and sturgeon
  • Sturgeon and salmon
  • Whale and swordfish

What legal concept from earlier chapters does the gentleman invoke when seizing the whale?

  • Loose-Fish
  • Maritime salvage
  • Fast-Fish
  • Right of first discovery

True or False: Ishmael states that the royal whale law was no longer in force in England at the time of writing.

  • True
  • False

What does Ishmael compare the head-and-tail division of the whale to?

  • Splitting a log
  • Halving an apple
  • Cutting a pie
  • Dividing a cake

Comprehension Quiz

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