Which of the following is punctuated correctly?
was it shakespeare who said, action is eloquence?
was it shakespeare who said, "action is eloquence? "
was it shakespeare who said: "action is eloquence."
was it shakespeare who said, "action is eloquence"?

The option that is correctly punctuated is:

Was it Shakespeare who said, "Action is eloquence"?

Explanation:

The reasons behind this are that first, all questions have to end with an interrogation sign. Second, the interrogation sign has to go after the quotation marks because it has a point and the quotation marks require a point after them to end the sentence. As well as to mark the moment where they start and the moment where they end.