Shakespeare in Love Script
INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. DAY.
SKY. Over which a title "LONDON--SUMMER 1593" appears.
Title card: In the glory days of the Elizabethan theatre
two playhouses were fighting it out for writers and
audiences. North of the city was the Curtain Theatre,
home to England’s most famous actor, Richard Burbage.
Across the river was the competition, built by Philip
Henslowe, a business with a cash flow problem...
...The Rose...
Gradually a building is revealed, The Rose Theatre, three-
tiered, open to the elements and empty. On the floor,
roughly printed, a poster--torn, soiled, out of date. It
says:
SEPT. 7TH & 8TH AT NOON
MR. EDWARD ALLEYN AND THE ADMIRAL’S MEN AT THE ROSE
THEATRE, BANKSIDE
THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDIE OF THE MONEYLENDER REVENG’D
OVER THIS the screams of a man under torture. The screams
are coming from the curtained stage.
VOICE (O.S.)
You Mongrel! Why do you howl When it
is I who am bitten?
INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. STAGE. DAY.
The theatre owner, PHILLIP HENSLOWE, is the man
screaming. HENSLOWE’S boots are on fire. He is pinioned
in a chair, with his feet stuck out over the hot colas of
a fire burning in a brazier. He is being held in that
position by LAMBERT, who is a thug employed by FENNYMAN,
who is the owner of the VOICE. The fourth man, FREES, is
FENNYMAN’S bookkeeper.
FENNYMAN
What am I, Mr. Lambert?
LAMBERT
Bitten, Mr. Fennyman.
FENNYMAN
How badly bitten, Mr. Frees?
FREES
Twelve pounds, one shilling and four
pence, Mr. Fennyman, including
interest.
HENSLOWE
Aaagh! I can pay you!
FENNYMAN
When?
HENSLOWE
Two weeks, three at the most, Aaaagh!
For pity’s sake.
FENNYMAN
Take his feet out. Where will you get
FREES
(the mathematical genius with
a notebook)
Sixteen pounds, five shillings and
nine pence
FENNYMAN
including interest in three weeks?
HENSLOWE
I have a wonderful new play!
FENNYMAN
Put his feet in.
HENSLOWE
It’s a comedy.
FENNYMAN
Cut his nose off.
HENSLOWE
A new comedy. By Will Shakespeare!
FENNYMAN
And his ears.
HENSLOWE
And a share. We will be partners, Mr.
Fennyman!
FENNYMAN
(hesitating)
Partners!
HENSLOWE
It’s a crowd-tickler--mistaken
identities, a shipwreck, a pirate
king, a bit with a dog, and love
triumphant.
LAMBERT
I think I’ve seen it. I didn’t like
it.
HENSLOWE
This time it is by Shakespeare.
FENNYMAN
What’s the title?
HENSLOWE
Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter.
FENNYMAN
Good title.
FENNYMAN snaps his fingers at FREES and LAMBERT. LAMBERT
unties HENSLOWE, FREES starts writing a contract.
FENNYMAN (CONT’D)
A play takes time. Find actors…
rehearsals…let’s say open in three
weeks. That’s--what--five hundred
groundlings at tuppence each, in
addition four hundred groundlings
tuppence each, in addition four
hundred backsides at three pence--a
penny extra for a cushion, call it two
hundred cushions, say two performance
for safety how much is that Mr. Frees?
FREES
Twenty pounds to the penny, Mr.
Fennyman.
FENNYMAN
Correct!
HENSLOWE
But I have to pay the actors and the
authors.
FENNYMAN
A share of the profits.
HENSLOWE
There’s never any
FENNYMAN
Of course not!
HENSLOWE
(impressed)
Mr. Fennyman, I think you may have hit
on something.
FENNYMAN slaps a contract down on the table next to n ink-
pot and quill.
FENNYMAN
Sign here.
HENSLOWE takes the quill and signs.
FENNYMAN (CONT’D)
Romeo and Ethel The Pirate’s
Daughter…Almost finished?
HENSLOWE
Without doubt he is completing it at
this very moment.
INT. WILL’S ROOM. DAY
A small cramped space in the eaves of a building. A
cluttered shelf containing various objects, wedged
between crumpled pieces of paper. Among those we have
time to observe: a skull, a mug that says A PRESENT FROM
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.
At infrequent intervals further pieces of crumpled paper
are tossed towards the shelf. The man who is throwing
them, WILL SHAKESPEARE, is bent over a table, writing
studiously with a quill.
Now we see what he is writing: Will is practising his
signature, over and over again. "Will Shagsbeard…W
Shakspur…William Shasper…" Each time he is dissatisfied,
and each time he crumples, and tosses it away.
Suddenly WILL becomes impatient. He jumps up and goes to
the loft area in the rafters, where he sleeps, and starts
to pull on his boots. At this point the door opens and
HENSLOWE walks in. He is out of breath and his feet hurt.
HENSLOWE
Will! Where is my play? Tell me you
have it nearly done! Tell me you have
it started.
(desperately)
You have begun?
WILL
(struggling with his boots)
Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt
that the sun doth move
HENSLOWE
No, no, we haven’t the time. Talk
prose. Where is my play?
WILL
(tapping his forehead and
heading out the door)
It is all locked safe in here
HENSLOWE
God be praised!
(then doubt)
Locked?
WILL
As soon as I have found my muse
EXT. STREET. OUTSIDE WILL’S HOUSE. DAY.
WILL lives in a crowded area of the city. Hawkers are
crying their wares, tract-sellers, delivery boys, and
merchants go about their business. HENSLOWE catches up
with WILL as he strides purposefully along.
HENSLOWE
(catching up)
Who is she this time?!
WILL
She is always Aphrodite.
HENSLOWE
Aphrodite Baggot who does it behind
the Dog and Trumpet?
WILL
Henslowe, you have no soul so how can
you understand the emptiness that
seeks a soulmate?
HENSLOWE
Well, I am a dead man and buggered to
boot. My theatre is close by the
plague these twelve weeks, my company
is playing the inn-yards
of England, while Burbage and the
Chamberlain’s Men are invited to court
and receive ten pounds to play your
piece, written for my theatre, by my
writer, at my risk when you were green
and grateful -
WILL
What piece? Richard Crookback?
HENSLOWE
No--it’s comedy they want, Will!
Comedy! Like Romeo and Ethel?
WILL
Who wrote that?
HENSLOWE
Nobody! You are writing it for me! I
gave you three pounds a month since.
WILL
Half what you owed me. I am still due
for One Gentleman of Verona.
EXT. ANOTHER STREET. DAY
HENSLOWE’S hardly paused in his appeal.
HENSLOWE
. . . Will! What is money to you and
me? I, your patron, you my wordwright!
When the plague lifts Burbage will
have a new Christopher Marlowe for the
Curtain and I have nothing for the
Rose.
WILL stops.
WILL
Mr. Henslowe, will you lend me fifty
pounds?
HENSLOWE
(staggered)
Fifty pounds? What for?
WILL
Burbage offers me a partnership in the
Chamberlain’s Men. For fifty pounds my
hired player days are over.
HENSLOWE
Cut out my heart! Throw my liver to
the dogs!
WILL
(answering for him)
No, then.
WILL turns down a side street.
EXT. MARKETPLACE. DAY.
HENSLOWE and WILL are crossing a crowded marketplace
where a Puritan preacher, MAKEPEACE, is haranguing anyone
who will listen.
MAKEPEACE
and the Lord shall smite them! Yea,
harken to me. The theatres are
handmaidens of the devil! Under the
name of the Curtain, the players
breed lewdness in your wives,
rebellion in your servants, idleness
in your apprentices and wickedness in
your children! And the Rose smells
thusly rank by any name! I say a
plague on both their houses!
As he passes WILL gratefully makes a mental note.
EXT. DR. MOTH’S HOUSE. DAY.
WILL turns into a narrow street and walks toward a
doorway.
HENSLOWE
Where are you going?
WILL
To my weekly confession.
As HENSLOWE arrives the door closes in his face. A sign
identifies the place as the premises of Dr. MOTH,
apothecary, alchemist, astrologer, seer, interpreter of
dreams, and priest of psyche. HENSLOWE looks puzzled.
INT. DR. MOTH’S HOUSE. DAY
A stuffed alligator hangs from the ceiling, pills,
potions, amulets and charms, star charts and mystic
paraphernalia festoon the place. Testimonials and framed
degrees hang on the walls.
WILL lying on a couch, on his back. His eyes are closed
DR. MOTH sits by the couch, listening to WILL and
occasionally making a note on a pad he holds on his knee.
What we have here is nothing less than the false dawn of
analysis. The session is being timed by an hourglass.
WILL
Words, words, words…once, I had the
gift…I could make love out of words as
a potter makes cups out of clay love
that overthrows empires, love that
binds two hearts together come
hellfire and brimstones…for sixpence a
line, I could cause a riot in a
nunnery…but now
DR. MOTH
And yet you tell me you lie with
women?
WILL seems unwiling to respond. DR. MOTH refers to his
notes.
DR. MOTH (CONT’D)
Black Sue, Fat Phoebe, Rosaline,
Burbage’s seamstress; Aphrodite, who
does it behind the Dog and
WILL
(interrupting)
Aye, now and again, but what of it? I
have lost my gift.
DR. MOTH
I am here to help you. Tell me in your
own words.
WILL
I have lost my gift.
(not finding this easy)
It’s as if my quill is broken. As if
the organ of the imagination has dried
up. As if the proud tower of my genius
has collapsed.
DR. MOTH
Interesting.
WILL
Nothing comes.
DR. MOTH
Most interesting.
WILL
It is like trying to a pick a lock
with a wet herring.
DR. MOTH
(shrewdly)
Tell me, are you lately humbled in the
act of love?
WILL turns towards him. How did he know that?
DR. MOTH (CONT’D)
How long has it been?
WILL
A goodly length in times past, but
lately
DR. MOTH
No, no. You have a wife, children
The sand runs through the hourglass.
LATER
Not much sand left.
WILL
I was a lad of eighteen. Anne Hathaway
was a woman, half as old again.
DR. MOTH
A woman of property?
WILL
(shrugs)
She had a cottage. One day, she was
three months gone with child, so
DR. MOTH
And your relations?
WILL
On my mother’s side the Ardens
DR. MOTH
No, your marriage bed.
WILL
Four years and a hundred miles away in
Stratford.
A cold bed too, since the twins were
born. Banishment was a blessing.
DR. MOTH
So now you are free to love
WILL
yet cannot love nor write it.
DR. MOTH reaches for a glass snake bracelet.
DR. MOTH
Here is a bangle found in Psyche’s
temple on Olympus cheap at four pence.
Write your name on a paper and feed it
in the snake.
WILL looks at the snake bangle in wonder.
WILL
Will it restore my gift?
DR. MOTH
The woman who wears the snake will
dream of you, and your gift will
return. Words will flow like a river.
I will see you in a week.
He holds out his hand. WILL drops a sovereign into it,
and takes the bracelet.
EXT. DR. MOTH’S HOUSE. DAY.
WILL comes out. HENSLOWE is waiting, standing in a horse
trough to ease his feet. WILL walks straight past him,
and HENSLOWE follows.
HENSLOWE
Now where? Will?
WILL
To the Palace at Whitehall.
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BACKSTAGE. DAY.
WHITEHALL means nothing yet. We are behind closed
curtains on a stage busy with preparations for the
imminent performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona. This is
not a theatre but a banqueting hall, as we will see.
RICHARD BURBAGE is to play "PROTEUS." A BOY PLAYER will
play "SILVIA," and last minute improvements to his makeup
etc. are being applied by BURBAGE’S mistress ROSALINE.
"LAUNCE," one of the clowns, is the famous comedian WILL
KEMPE. "LAUNCE’S" dog, CRAB is in KEMPE’S charge and is
not helping much. There is no set. A helpful placard
reading VERONA--AN OPEN PLACE, is ready to hand. MUSICIANS
can be heard tuning their instruments. From the other
side of the curtain there is an expectant bubbub. KEMPE
leads the dog into the wings and rummages in a box of
proops. He finds a skull. He has one foot on the box, his
elbow on his knee, he looks at the skull…in other words
he reminds us of Hamlet. We see this from the POV of
WILL, who is just entering through a door backstage.
WILL
(approaching)
Prithee, Mr. Kempe, break a leg. You
too, good Crab.
KEMPE
Crab is nervous. He has never played
the Palace. When will you write me a
tragedy, Will? I could do it.
WILL
No, they would laugh at Seneca if you
played it.
WILL’S attention has been caught by ROSALINE, BURBAGE’S
mistress. ROSALINE is big breasted, dark-eyed, dark-
haired, sexual.
BURBAGE
(to ROSALINE)
My sleeve wants for a button, Mistress
Rosaline, where were my seamstress’s
eyes?
BURBAGE kisses her mouth and slaps her behind. He comes
over to greet WILL.
BURBAGE (CONT’D)
There is no dog in the first scene,
Will Kempe, thank you. How goes it
Will?
WILL
I am still owed money for this play,
Burbage.
BURBAGE
Not from me. I only stole it. When are
you coming over to the Chamberlain’s
Men?
WILL
When I have fifty pounds.
ROSALINE brings over the last elements of BURBAGE’S
costume and helps him into them.
BURBAGE
Are you writing?
WILL
(nods somewhat defensively)
A comedy. All but done, a pirate
comedy, wonderful.
BURBAGE
What is the chief part?
WILL
Romeo. Wit, swordsman, lover.
BURBAGE
The title?
WILL
Romeo
BURBAGE
I will play him. Bring it tomorrow.
WILL
It’s for Henslowe. He paid me.
BURBAGE
How much?
WILL
Ten pounds.
BURBAGE
You’re a liar.
BURBAGE digs under his costume for his purse, which is on
a waistband, over his corset.
WILL
I swear it. He wants Romeo for Ned and
the Admiral’s Men.
BURBAGE
Ned is wrong for it.
WILL turns to see HENSLOWE approaching.
BURBAGE (CONT’D)
(to WILL)
Here is two sovereigns--I’ll give you
two more when you show me the pages.
WILL
Done.
HENSLOWE
(arriving)
Burbage, I will see you hanged for a
pickpocket.
BURBAGE
The Queen has commanded, she loves a
comedy and the Master of the Revels
favours us.
HENSLOWE
And what favour does Mr. Tilney
receive from you?
BURBAGE
Ask him.
The Master of the Revels (TILNEY) comes through the
curtain officiously.
TILNEY
She comes!
He disappears back through the curtains. The hubbub falls
silent, rather dramatically, and all the busy PLAYERS
know what that means: they all crowd to the curtain and
find places to peep through.
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BANQUETING HALL. FRONT OF
HOUSE/STAGE. DAY.
THE POV OF THE PLAYERS.
The arrival of QUEEN ELIZABETH, aged sixty, coming to
take her place in the audience at front centre. The hill
is crowded with lords and ladies, bowing ELIZABETH to her
seat, which is raised high on a pedestal, affording the
QUEEN an uninterrupted view of the play, and the audience
an uninterrupted view of the QUEEN. Trumpets sound.
Close on a small piece of paper: a quill is writing "W.
Shakespeare." WILL rolls the paper up carefully and slips
it into the mouth of the snake bangle.
The curtain draws back and CONDELL as "VALENTINE" and
BURBAGE as "PROTEUS" begin the play.
CONDELL AS VALENTINE
"Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus;
Home-keeping youth have ever homely
wits…"
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BANQUETING HALL. THE
WINGS/BACKSTAGE. DAY.
With BURBAGES’S presence accounted for on stage, ROSALINE
curls an arm around WILL’S neck. They kiss hungrily.
After a moment, WILL pulls back.
ROSALINE
When will you write me a sonnet, Will?
WILL
I have lost my gift.
ROSALINE
You left it in my bed. Come to look
for it again.
WILL
Are you to be my muse, ROSALINE?
ROSALINE
Burbage has my keeping but you have my
heart.
WILL takes the snake bracelet and slips it onto her arm.
ROSALINE looks at it, then at WILL. Then they kiss again,
but WILL is distracted by the sound of coughing from the
auditorium.
WILL
You see? The consumptives plot against
me. "Will Shakespeare has a play, let
us go and cough through it."
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BANQUETING HALL. STAGE. DAY.
"VALENTINE" is on stage with "PROTEUS."
CONDELL AS VALENTINE
"To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans: Coy
looks with heart sore sighs; One fading moment’s mirth
With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights…"
As the scene continues, WILL appears at the back of the
hall and finds himself next to HENSLOWE.
WILL
I feel a scene coming on.
HENSLOWE
Is it about a pirate’s daughter?
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BACK OF THE BANQUETING HALL/STAGE.
DAY.
Laughter. It is later, and KEMPE is now on stage with his
dog. The audience is roaring.
HENSLOWE
You see? Comedy.
QUEEN ELIZABETH’S idiosyncratic laugh rises above the
others.
QUEEN
Well played, Master Crab, I commend
you.
She throws a sweetheart on the stage and the dog wolfs it
down. Everyone applauds.
HENSLOWE
Love and a bit with a dog, that’s what
they like.
Now we meet VIOLA. VIOLA DE LESSEPS is twenty-five and
beautiful, and she is laughing with great natural
enjoyment. She sits slightly apart from her small family
group--her parents, SIR ROBERT DE LESSEPS and LADY
MARGARET DE LESSEPS. Part of the group but seated behind
as befits her lower status is VIOLA’S NURSE.
Elsewhere is LORD WESSEX, our villain. WESSEX is in his
forties, dark cruel, self-important. He has noticed
VIOLA. The nurse notices him.
INT. WHITEHALL PALACE. BANQUETING HALL. FRONT OF
HOUSE/STAGE. DAY.
LATER. "VALENTINE" is on stage alone. He is speaking the
speech rather more coarsely than the version we hear
later.
CONDELL AS VALENTINE
"What light is light if Silvia be not
seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by
And feed upon the shadow of
perfection…"
Now we see that VIOLA knows the speech by heart, and is
silently mouthing it with the actor.
HENSLOWE
There’s a lady knows your play by
heart.
But when he turns to WILL he finds that WILL has gone.
INT. WILL’S ROOM. DAY.
WILL comes into his room, goes straight to his table in
the window, and arranges pen, ink, and paper. Now he has
his ritual: he spins round once in a circle, rubs his
hands together and spits on the floor. Then he sits down,
picks up his pen, and stares in front of him. PAUSE. Then
he begins to write.
INT. DE LESSEPSES’ HOUSE. VIOLA’S BEDROOM. NIGHT.
The NURSE is undressing her, though VIOLA tries
intermittently to push her away. She is still bright with
excitement.
VIOLA
Did you like Proteus or Valentine
best? Proteus for speaking, Valentine
for looks.
NURSE
I liked the dog, for laughs.
VIOLA
But Silvia I did not care for much.
His fingers were red from fighting and
he spoke like a schoolboy at lessons.
Stage love will never be true love
while the law of the land has our
heroines played by pipsqueak boys in
petticoats! Oh, when can we see
another?
NURSE
When the Queen commands it.
VIOLA
But at the playhouse. Nurse?
NURSE
Be still.
Now the NURSE is cleaning VIOLA’S ears, one by one, of
course. She has an ear-cleaning implement for this. VIOLA
submits.
NURSE (CONT’D)
Playhouses are not for well-born
ladies.
VIOLA
I am not so well-born.
NURSE
Well-monied is the same as well-born
and well-married is more so. Lord
Wessex was looking at you tonight.
VIOLA
All the men at court are without
poetry. If they look at me they see my
father’s fortune. I will have poetry
in my life. And adventure. And love.
Love above all.
NURSE
Like Valentine and Silvia?
VIOLA
No . . . not the artful postures of
love, but love that over- throws life.
Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot
in the heart, and nothing to be done,
come ruin or rapture. Love like there
has never been in a play.
(beat)
I will have love or I will end my days
as a . . .
NURSE
As a nurse.
VIOLA
(kissing her)
But I would be Valentine and Silvia
too. Good Nurse, God save you and good
night. I would stay asleep my whole
life if I could dream myself into a
company of players.
VIOLA goes over to the window.
INT. DE LESSEPSES’ HOUSE. VIOLA’S BEDROOM. NIGHT.
The NURSE thrusts a twig to her face.
NURSE
Clean your teeth while you dream,
then.
Automatically, VIOLA takes the twig and begins brushing
her teeth, all the while looking downriver towards the
Rose. The NURSE attends her with a beaker of water, and a
bowl.
NURSE (CONT’D)
Now spit
VIOLA gazes longingly towards the Rose… And, there and
then, she makes a plan.
EXT. SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE ROSE THEATRE. DAY.
HENSLOWE is making his way from the theatre to the market
place when FENNYMAN and LAMBERT appear at either shoulder
and propel him back the way he came. FREES follows
behind.
FENNYMAN
This time we take your boots off!
HENSLOWE
What have I done, Mr. Fennyman?
FENNYMAN
The theatres are all closed by the
plague!
HENSLOWE
Oh, that.
FENNYMAN
by order of the Master of the Revels!
HENSLOWE
Mr. Fennyman, let me explain about the
theatre business.
(they stop)
The natural condition is one of
insurmountable obstacles on the road
to imminent disaster. Believe me, to
be close by the plague is a bagatelle
in the ups and downs of owning a
theatre.
FENNYMAN
So what do we do?
HENSLOWE
Nothing. Strangely enough , it all
turns out well.
FENNYMAN
How?
HENSLOWE
I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
LAMBERT
(dumbly)
Should I kill him, Mr. Fennyman?
At this point din is heard in the background. a
messenger, ringing a bell, is running though the street.
MESSENGER
The theatres are reopened. By order of
the Master of the Revels, the theatres
are reopened
FENNYMAN is intrigued.
FREES
Mr. Fennyman! Mr. Tilney has opened
the playhouses.
FENNYMAN
Yes I heard.
HENSLOWE plays his temporary advantage modestly,
shrugging himself free of LAMBERT’S grip.
HENSLOWE
(to LAMBERT)
If you wouldn’t mind
HENSLOWE continues on his way. FENNYMAN watches HENSLOWE,
curious.
FENNYMAN
Where is the play?
HENSLOWE
Oh, it’s coming, it’s coming.
INT. WILL’S ROOM. DAY.
It is. WILL is writing furiously. A burnt-down candle is
still alight, although it is day outside the window. He
has been writing all night. He has written about ten
pages. Pleased with himself and excited, he gathers them
up and leaves the room like a man with a mission.
EXT. WILL’S HOUSE. DAY.
Leaving the house, pages in hand, WILL nearly knocks down
HENSLOWE who has come to see him.
HENSLOWE
Will! The theatres are
Before he can finish, WILL brandishes the pages in his
hand.
WILL
Romeo and Rosaline. Scene One! God,
I’m good!
HENSLOWE
Rosaline? You mean Ethel.
WILL has gone.
EXT. BURBAGE’S HOUSE. DAY.
BURBAGE lives in another part of the city. WILL bangs
through the door without ceremony.
WILL
(shouting)
Richard!
INT. BURBAGE’S HOUSE. DAY.
WILL enters and calls out.
WILL
Burbage?
INT. BURBAGE’S BEDROOM. DAY.
WILL charges into the bedroom. ROSALINE is in bed. The
Master of the Revels is pulling up his breeches. WILL is
shattered.
WILL
Mr. Tilney
The unsuccessful snake bracelet glints at him from
ROSALINE’S arm.
TILNEY
Like you, I found him not at home!
WILL
So this is the favour you find in the
Chamberlain’s Men.
ROSALINE
Will!
WILL
(to ROSALINE)
I would have made you immortal.
(turning to go)
Tell Burbage he has lost a new play by
Will Shakespeare.
TILNEY
What does Burbage care of that? He is
readying the Curtain for Kit Marlowe.
WILL
You have opened the playhouses?
TILNEY
I have, Master Shakespeare.
WILL
But the plague
TILNEY
(sighs)
Yes, I know. But he was always hanging
around the house.
A bell can be heard ringing outside.
ROSALINE
(to WILL, leaving)
Will…you’re the only one, Will!--in my
heart.
EXT. STREET. OUTSIDE BURBAGE’S HOUSE. DAY.
WILL emerges looking distraught. A burning brazier stands
by the wall. WILL thrusts the pages into the coals. He
watches for a moment as the pages catch fire.
INT. TAVERN. DAY.
WILL walks in to find the place in an uproar of
celebration. A handsome young serving man (NOL) is
bumping through with a tray of tankards.
NOL
(excitedly)
Mr. Henslowe!
HENSLOWE
Yes, I heard. The theatres are open.
But where is my playwright?
HENSLOWE finds a seat, and takes a tankard off NOL’S
tray.
HENSLOWE
Chalk it up, Nol. I’m hungry, too.
NOL
The special today is a pig’s foot
marinated in juniper-berry vinegar,
served with a buckwheat pancake which
has been
They are interrupted by WILL who joins them. He looks
distracted.
HENSLOWE
Will! Have you finished?
WILL
Yes. Nearly.
(he taps his forehead)
It’s all locked safe in here. We need
Ralph for the Pirate King. Good
morning, Master Nol. You will have a
nice little part.
NOL shouts for you, takes off his apron and flings it
behind the bar. HENSLOWE jumps up and embraces WILL. The
entire staff and half the customers are now crowding
around, actors the lot of them. HENSLOWE bangs the table
to shut them all up.
HENSLOWE
Ned Alleyn and the Admiral’s Men are
out on tour. I need actors. Those here
who are unknown will have a chance to
be known.
ACTOR
What about the money, Mr. Henslowe?
HENSLOWE
It won’t cost you a penny! Auditions
in half-an-hour!
The din of excited chatter returns. He sweeps grandly to
the tavern door…where he meets RALPH BASHFORD, a big,