Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Viola De Lesseps: Write me well.

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.