The financial situation of playwrights in Elizabethan theater was often _____, but being as commercially successful as he was early in his career likely granted William Shakespeare security that contributed to his ability to later create Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, and other works still revered today.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Explanation
Context: The sentence sets the usual financial standing of Elizabethan playwrights against the security Shakespeare's early commercial success afforded him.
Answer: D) precarious
Why? "But" marks Shakespeare as the exception, so the blank must describe the insecure norm his security departed from. "Precarious" means unstable and liable to sudden collapse — the direct opposite of the steadiness the sentence credits with letting him go on to write Twelfth Night and Antony and Cleopatra.
Traps:
- A) "indecipherable" → means impossible to interpret; the contrast concerns instability, not obscurity.
- B) "justifiable" → describes something defensible, which offers no contrast with financial security.
- C) "predictable" → would make the typical playwright's finances steady, erasing the contrast "but" sets up.