Viola De Lesseps: I love you, Will, beyond poetry.
Philip Henslowe: Let us have pirates, clowns, and a happy
ending, or we shall send you back to Stratford to your wife!
Philip Henslowe: You see -- comedy. Love, and a bit with
a dog. That's what they want.
Viola De Lesseps: [as Juliet] I do remember well where I
should be, and there I am -- where is my Romeo? Nurse: [shouting
from the audience] Dead!
Richard Burbage: The Master of the Revels despises us all
for vagrants and peddlers of bombast. But my father, James
Burbage, had the first license to make a company of players
from Her Majesty, and he drew from poets the literature
of the age. We must show them that we are men of parts.
Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain
is yours.
Hugh Fennyman: Uh, one moment, sir. Ned Alleyn: Who are
you? Hugh Fennyman: I'm, uh... I'm the money. Ned Alleyn:
Then you may remain so long as you remain silent.
[Dropping Mr. Henslowe's feet into hot coals.] Hugh Fennyman:
Henslowe! Do you know what happens to a man who doesn't
pay his debts? His boots catch fire!
Lord Wessex: I have spoken with your father. Viola De Lesseps:
So, my lord? I speak with him every day.
William Shakespeare: I have a new play. Christopher Marlowe:
What's it called? William Shakespeare: Romeo and Ethel the
Pirate's Daughter. Christopher Marlowe: What is the story?
William Shakespeare: Well, there's this pirate...
Christopher Marlowe: I thought your play was for Burbage.
William Shakespeare: This is a different one. Christopher
Marlowe: A different one you haven't written?
[Whispering at Viola's bedroom door.] Nurse: My lady, the
house is stirring. It is a new day. Viola De Lesseps: It
is a new WORLD.
Queen Elizabeth: Mr. Tilney! Have a care with my name --
you will wear it out!
[Authorizing Lord Wessex to marry Viola.] Queen Elizabeth:
Have her, then, but you're a lordly fool. She's been plucked
since I saw her last -- and not by you. It takes a woman
to know it.
[After sex.] Viola De Lesseps: I would not have thought
it: there IS something better than a play! Will Shakespeare:
There is. Viola De Lesseps: Even your play. Will Shakespeare:
Hmm? Viola De Lesseps: And that was only my first try.
Lord Wessex: I cannot shed blood in her house, but I will
cut your throat anon. What is your name? William Shakespeare:
Christopher Marlowe, at your service.
Lord Wessex: Is she obedient? Sir Robert de Lesseps: As
any mule in Christendom -- but if you are the man to ride
her, there are rubies in the saddlebag. Lord Wessex: I like
her!
Tilney: That woman is a woman!
Lord Wessex: My lady, the tide waits for no man, but I swear
it would wait for you.
Viola de Lesseps: [as Thomas Kent] Tell me how you love
her, Will. William Shakespeare: Like a sickness and its
cure together.
Queen Elizabeth: I know something of a woman in a man's
profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.
[On first hearing the tragic ending to Romeo and Juliet.]
Philip Henslowe: Well, that will have them rolling in the
aisles.
Philip Henslowe: The show must... you know... William Shakespeare:
[prompting him] Go on!
Viola De Lesseps: This is not life, Will. It is a stolen
season.
William Shakespeare: I'm done with theater. The playhouse
is for dreamers. Look what the dream brought us. Viola De
Lesseps: It was we ourselves did that. And for my life to
come, I would not have it otherwise.
Viola De Lesseps: I loved a writer and gave up the prize
for a sonnet. William Shakespeare: I was the more deceived.
Viola De Lesseps: Yes, you were deceived, for I did not
know how much I loved you.
[Saying their goodbyes.] William Shakespeare: You will never
age for me, nor fade, nor die.
[About Marlowe's death in a tavern] Ned Alleyn: A quarrel
about the bill. Philip Henslowe: The bill! Ah, vanity, vanity!
Ned Alleyn: Not the billing -- the BILL!
William Shakespeare: It is not a comedy I'm writing now.
Ned Alleyn: Pay attention and you will see how genius creates
a legend.
William Shakespeare: Love knows nothing of rank or river
bank.
William Shakespeare: Love denied blights the soul we owe
to God.
William Shakespeare: A broad river divides my lovers: family,
duty, fate. As unchangeable as nature.
Lord Wessex: How is this to end? Queen Elizabeth: As stories
must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.
Viola de Lesseps: I would stay asleep my whole life, if
I could dream myself into a company of players.
William Shakespeare: You see? The comsumptives plot against
me. "Will Shakespeare has a play, let us go and cough through
it."
Viola De Lesseps: Good sir? I heard you were a poet. But
a poet of no words?
Viola De Lesseps: Master Shakespeare? William Shakespeare:
The same, alas. Viola De Lesseps: Oh, but why "alas"? William
Shakespeare: A lowly player. Viola De Lesseps: Alas indeed,
for I thought you the highest poet of my esteem and writter
of plays that capture my heart. William Shakespeare: Oh
-- I am him too!
Queen Elizabeth: Fifty pounds! A very worthy sum on a very
worthy question. Can a play show us the very truth and nature
of love? I bear witness to the wager, and will be the judge
of it as occasion arises. I have not seen anything to settle
it yet.
Viola De Lesseps: Good morning, my lord. I see you are open
for business -- so let's to church.
Queen Elizabeth: And tell Shakespeare, something more cheerful
next time, for Twelfth Night.
