The Alchemist MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature

The Alchemist MCQs
Updated on: November 5, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 17 min

The Alchemist MCQs

1. What is Face wearing at the start of the play?

A. Simple plain livery
B. A scarlet robe
C. A captain’s uniform
D. A felt of rug

C. A captain’s uniform.
Face enters the stage wearing a Captain’s uniform with his sword drawn, instantly establishing his current con man role.

2. What item does Dol seize from Face to stop the initial quarrel?

A. His velvet head
B. His sword
C. A glass vial
D. His coal credit

B. His sword.
Dol attempts to enforce peace between the men by forcibly snatching Face’s sword from him.

3. According to Subtle, what was Face’s respectable job not long ago?

A. Suburb-captain
B. Doctor dog
C. Master’s housekeeper
D. Sublimed spirit

C. Master’s house-keeper.
Subtle reminds Face that he was formerly the good, honest, plain servant who kept the master’s worship’s house.

4. Where does Face remind Subtle they first met?

A. Lovewit’s house
B. At Pie-corner
C. The buttery-hatch
D. Near the furnace

B. At Pie-corner.
Face recalls meeting Subtle at Pie-corner, where he was eating steam from cooks’ stalls, showing his former poverty.
5. What name does Dol use to describe their joint enterprise?

A. The common work
B. The division
C. The venture tripartite
D. Our state of grace

C. The venture tripartite.
Dol insists that the relationship must maintain “equality” because their scheme is a “venture tripartite”.

6. How does Face primarily threaten Subtle during their fight?

A. Turning him in
B. Cutting his throat
C. Writing him up
D. Calling the marshal

C. Writing him up.
Face threatens to “Write thee up bawd in Paul’s” and expose all his cozening tricks in a book.

7. What prevents Lovewit from returning to his house?

A. His hop-yards
B. The weekly plague
C. Subtle’s spells
D. His long absence

B. The weekly plague.
Face states Lovewit is safe because “While there dies one a week O’ the plague,” he stays away from London.

8. What is Dapper’s profession when he arrives?

A. Fine clerk
B. Small poet
C. Heir to marks
D. Quodling

A. Fine clerk.
Dapper is explicitly referred to by Face as his “lawyer’s clerk,” who writes “six fair hands”.

9. What is Dapper hoping to obtain to help him win at gaming?

A. The Greek Testament
B. A gold coin
C. A familiar spirit
D. Captain Face’s help

C. A familiar spirit.
Dapper tells Face that he wants a “familiar” spirit specifically to help him “rifle with at horses” and win cups.
10. What does Dapper equate the term “chiaus” with?

A. A liar
B. A Turk
C. A friend
D. A gentleman

B. A Turk.
Dapper explains that a chiaus is “As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?” a term for a deceiver.

11. What initial amount of money does Dapper give Face for Subtle?

A. One angel
B. Four angels
C. Nine pounds
D. Twenty marks

B. Four angels.
Face tells Subtle that Dapper has “Four angels here” to tempt him into accepting the business.

12. To persuade Dapper to pay more, Face claims Dapper is allied to whom?

A. The Devil
B. The noble doctor
C. The queen of Fairy
D. Sir Epicure Mammon

C. The queen of Fairy.
Face tells Dapper that Subtle swears he is “Allied to the queen of Fairy,” boosting his perceived status.

13. What substance is Dapper required to put into his senses before seeing the Queen?

A. Aqua regis
B. Red oil
C. Rose-vinegar
D. Three drops of vinegar

D. Three drops of vinegar.
Subtle instructs Dapper to take three drops of vinegar in at his nose, plus more in his mouth and ears.

14. What specific item must Dapper wear for his interview with the Fairy Queen?

A. A Spanish ruff
B. A clean shirt
C. The petticoat
D. An alembic

B. A clean shirt.
Face instructs Dapper to “put on a clean shirt” as her grace may favor him if he looks clean.
15. What is Abel Drugger’s main product?

A. Aqua-vitae
B. Juniper fire
C. Tobacco
D. French beans

C. Tobacco.
Subtle asks Drugger if he is “A seller of tobacco?” to which Drugger confirms, “Yes, sir”.

16. What does Drugger want help with regarding his new shop?

A. The best sign
B. The layout and door
C. His astrological chart
D. Finding a partner

B. The layout and door.
Drugger asks Subtle to use art to determine which way he should make his door and where to place his shelves.

17. To frighten flies from Drugger’s boxes, Subtle suggests writing the names of what?

A. Mercurial spirits
B. Dead Hollanders
C. Roman gods
D. The good angels

A. Mercurial spirits.
Subtle names several mercurial spirits (like Mathlai) that “do fright flies from boxes”.

18. What physical attribute of Drugger indicates his fortune according to Subtle’s metoposcopy?

A. His complexion
B. His little finger
C. His no buttocks
D. His long ear

D. His long ear.
Subtle tells Face that his “long ear doth promise” good fortune, alongside spots on his teeth.

19. Sir Epicure Mammon believes he will obtain the philosopher’s stone on which specific day?

A. Tomorrow morning
B. This day
C. Next spring
D. In ten months

B. This day.
Mammon declares, “This is the day” when he will pronounce the happy word, BE RICH.
20. What is the name Mammon uses for Face when he is performing his role as the assistant?

A. Pertinax
B. Surly
C. Lungs
D. The Alchemist

C. Lungs.
Mammon calls Face “His Lungs, his Zephyrus,” referring to the assistant who literally blows the furnace coals.

21. What specific proportion of base metal can the medicine transmute at first?

A. One thousand to one
B. A hundred to one
C. Ten thousand to one
D. Ten to one

B. A hundred to one.
One part of the Great Medicine, projected on a hundred parts of Mercury, shall turn it to gold.

22. What famous ancient writing does Mammon claim was a book of alchemy?

A. Pythagoras’ thigh
B. Jason’s fleece
C. Pandora’s tub
D. Medea’s charms

B. Jason’s fleece.
Mammon says Jason’s fleece was “no other than a book of alchemy, Writ in large sheep-skin”.

23. Mammon plans to restore an old man of fourscore (80) to what condition?

A. Renew him like an eagle
B. A young giant
C. A strong Mars
D. A wealthy child

A. Renew him like an eagle.
Mammon intends to “Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle, To the fifth age”.

24. What specific colour signifies the projection’s expected success on the day of Mammon’s visit?

A. White
B. Crimson
C. Pale citron
D. Ruby

B. Crimson.
Face tells Mammon the evening will “set red upon you, sir; You have colour for it, crimson”.
25. What is the common name for the black colour achieved in the alchemical process?

A. The crow’s head
B. The green lion
C. The peacock’s tail
D. The plumed swan

A. The crow’s head.
When Subtle hears the colour is black, Mammon asks, “That’s your crow’s head?” referring to a stage of nigredo.

26. To show his devotion to the stone, Mammon says he will build what?

A. Seraglios
B. New ships
C. Colleges and schools
D. A new city

C. Colleges and schools.
Mammon claims he will employ the wealth in pious uses, founding colleges, grammar schools, and hospitals.

27. Why does Surly say Subtle’s work is impossible?

A. Too many terms
B. Hatching gold in a furnace
C. Lack of piety
D. Face is a rogue

B. Hatching gold in a furnace.
Surly says the whole work seems impossible, specifically suggesting it’s like hatching eggs in Egypt.

28. The long list of strange alchemical terms Surly mocks are used by writers to do what?

A. Confuse the gull
B. Obscure their art
C. Explain the process
D. Show their knowledge

B. Obscure their art.
Subtle explains that the writers used the obscure names because they “Used to obscure their art”.

29. Dol is brought in dressed richly and is introduced to Mammon as afflicted by what?

A. The bone-ache
B. Melancholy
C. Mád studying Broughton’s works
D. Green sickness

C. Màd studying Broughton’s works.
Face informs Mammon that Dol is a scholar who has “gone màd with studying Broughton’s works”.
30. Mammon is warned not to mention which specific language to Dol?

A. French
B. Latin
C. Hebrew
D. High Dutch

C. Hebrew.
Face warns that if Mammon names a word “touching the Hebrew, She falls into her fit”.

31. Surly receives a message asking him to meet Captain Face where?

A. The Temple-church
B. Blackfriars
C. The Dagger
D. Pie-corner

A. The Temple-church.
Face sends Surly a message, telling him to meet “Captain Face” in the Temple-church on urgent business.

32. What common Puritan name is Tribulation’s companion?

A. Zeal-in-the-Lord
B. Ananias
C. Master Wholesome
D. Long-patience

B. Ananias.
Ananias introduces himself as a deacon sent from their pastor, Tribulation Wholesome.

33. When Ananias rejects the language of alchemy, what does he call it?

A. Profane as Sathan
B. Heathen Greek
C. Popish words
D. The language of Canaan

B. Heathen Greek.
Ananias explicitly states that he takes “Ars sacra, Or chrysopoeia” and other terms to be “Heathen Greek”.

34. What alchemical step follows ‘mortification’?

A. Solution
B. Fixation
C. Vivification
D. Sublimation

C. Vivification.
Face answers Subtle’s question, stating that vivification comes immediately “After mortification”.
35. The brethren eventually agree to the work after deciding casting dollars is what?

A. Profane act
B. Foreign coin
C. Lawful
D. An idle tradition

C. Lawful.
Tribulation asks if coining is lawful, and after Subtle rephrases it as “casting,” they agree, “Casting of money may be lawful”.

36. Why does Subtle intimidate Ananias and Tribulation at first?

A. To make them pay
B. To make them admire him
C. To show his authority
D. To maintain silence

B. To make them admire him.
Subtle says he must use a “strange fashion” to make the Puritan brother “admire me”.

37. What is Abel Drugger’s third request of the doctor on his return?

A. A good sign for his shop
B. A cure for worms
C. To see the stone
D. To find a wife

A. A good sign for his shop.
Face says Drugger has brought gold and “prays you, You would devise… A sign, sir”.

38. Which astrological sign does Subtle reject for Drugger’s sign?

A. Taurus
B. Aries
C. The Balance
D. Mercury

C. The Balance.
Subtle rejects the idea of The Balance (Libra) because that way “is stale, and common”.

39. Kastril is described as newly warm in his land, being how old?

A. Nineteen
B. Three thousand
C. One and twenty
D. Forty

C. One and twenty.
Drugger describes Kastril as “Scarce cold in his one and twenty” years of age.
40. What instrument does Face claim Subtle has devised to teach quarrelling?

A. A pair of scales
B. A mathematical table
C. A drawing sword
D. A silver tongs

B. A mathematical table.
Face claims Subtle has made “A table, With mathematical demonstrations, Touching the art of quarrels”.

41. What is the name of Kastril’s sister?

A. Dame Dorothy
B. Widow Pliant
C. Dol Common
D. Mistress Dorothy

B. Widow Pliant.
Subtle discovers her full identity when Kastril states, “Her name is so, by her other husband… The widow Pliant”.

42. How does Surly disguise himself to return to the house?

A. A fat knight
B. A Spanish count
C. An angry boy
D. Jeremy the butler

B. A Spanish count.
Face introduces Surly, having changed his appearance, as “A noble count, a don of Spain”.

43. Mammon’s discussion of the Fifth Monarchy causes Dol to fall into a fit about what text?

A. Ovid’s poetry
B. The Talmud
C. Broughton’s works
D. Hebrew genealogies

C. Broughton’s works.
Mammon mentions the Fifth Monarchy, which Face explains triggers her fit based on “Broughton!”.

44. After the explosion, what material is saved that Face suggests might be useful?

A. Gold in the blood
B. A peck of coals
C. The alembics
D. Shards and glass

B. A peck of coals.
Face reports that only “A peck of coals or so, which is cold comfort, sir,” was preserved.
45. When Lovewit returns, what lie does Face use to explain the locked doors?

A. Subtle stole the keys
B. The cat had the plague
C. He was sick in bed
D. The neighbours lied

B. The cat had the plague.
Face claims his “fellow, The cat that kept the buttery, had it on her”.

46. What object prevents Dapper from confessing he still has money after being blindfolded?

A. His handkerchief
B. A paper with a spur-ryal
C. His gold ring
D. The smock piece

B. A paper with a spur-ryal.
Dapper first confesses to having “a paper with a spur-ryal in’t” after being pinched by the ‘elves’.

47. What object is forced into Dapper’s mouth as a new gag?

A. A sugar plum
B. A piece of tar
C. Gingerbread
D. A clean clout

C. Gingerbread.
Subtle fits a piece of gingerbread into Dapper’s mouth to silence him before Mammon arrives.

48. When Dapper finally sees the “Queen of Fairy,” how does Subtle tell him to approach her?

A. Bow deeply
B. Wriggle on his knees
C. Cry out “hum”
D. Stay silent

B. Wriggle on his knees.
Subtle instructs Dapper, “Down o’ your knees and wriggle,” because she has a stately presence.

49. What kind of cloak and hat does Face borrow from Drugger to continue his deceit?

A. Hieronimo’s old cloak
B. A Spanish habit
C. Subtle’s gown
D. A new damask suit

A. Hieronimo’s old cloak.
Face suggests using Hieronimo’s old cloak, ruff, and hat from the players because a Spanish suit would take longer.
50. In the end, Lovewit avoids legal trouble and gains wealth by doing what?

A. Exposing the rogues
B. Marrying the widow Pliant
C. Taking all the goods
D. Confuting the Puritans

B. Marrying the widow Pliant.
Lovewit swiftly marries the widow Pliant, preventing Surly from claiming her and securing her fortune.

Brief Overview

The Alchemist is a satirical comedy by the Jacobean playwright Ben Jonson, first performed in 1610 and widely considered his best play. It is a sharp critique of human greed, gullibility, and vice, set in a deserted London house during a plague.

The play focuses on three main tricksters: Subtle, Face, and Dol Common. They use the London house of Face’s master, Lovewit, as a base for their scams.

Subtle pretends to be an expert alchemist or doctor, promising wonders. Face, initially Lovewit’s butler named Jeremy, acts as Subtle’s assistant. Dol helps them maintain their lies.

Many eager gulls visit the house, seeking great fortunes. Sir Epicure Mammon wants the philosopher’s stone for riches and pleasure. Dapper, a clerk, believes he is allied to the Queen of Fairy to win at games.

Puritans Ananias and Tribulation want the stone to fund their holy cause. Abel Drugger, a tobacco-seller, seeks advice for his new shop and hopes to marry the wealthy widow, Dame Pliant.

A sceptic, Surly, disguises himself as a Spanish nobleman to try to expose the cheating group. He reveals their tricks, but Face and Subtle use confusion to drive him away. The true master, Lovewit, then returns home unexpectedly.

Face quickly reverts to his butler identity. He confesses only that he lent the house to avoid full exposure. Face convinces Lovewit to marry Dame Pliant himself, which gains Face forgiveness and security. Subtle and Dol are forced to flee without their full profits.

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