Perhaps the best explanation ever of what a career in the arts is like... 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. Which always makes me laugh - and reminds me of the film business!

That line "I don't know. It's a mystery." occurs three times in the movie, a great example of a callback. The first few times, it's a comedic device. The last time during the final exchange between Will and Viola before she departs for America takes on a whole different tone because of the circumstances. Thanks for breaking the ice, Debbie. I was going to say, if we can't find good examples of dialogue in Shakespeare in Love, then there IS no good dialogue! So I look forward to seeing what folks excerpt from the script. I've got a few to add to the mix down the road today.

Dialogue 1 WESSEX: …Nature and truth are the very enemies of play acting. I'll wager my fortune. QUEEN: I thought you were here because you had none. Dialogue 2 Burbage: We are a brotherhood, and we will be a profession. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain is yours. Dialogue 3 QUEEN: Master Shakespeare. Next time you come to Greenwich, come as yourself and we will speak some more. Dialogue? 4 Scene 56A: WILL: Yes, by God! Love knows nothing of rank or riverbank! … Scene 99: Viola: Oh, Will! As Thomas Kent my heart belongs to you but as Viola the river divides us, and I will marry Wessex a week from Saturday. Callback 1 Scene 5: WILL: Burbage offers me a partnership in the Chamberlain's Men. For fifty pounds my hired player days are over. Scene 184: VIOLA: A hired player no longer. Fifty pounds, Will, for the poet of true love. Callback 2 Scene 19: FENNYMAN: How? HENSLOWE: I don't know. It's a mystery. Scene145 HENSLOWE: No, it will turn out well. WILL: How will it? HENSLOWE: I don't know, it's a mystery. Scene 150 HENSLOWE: It will be all right. WILL: How does it? HENSLOWE: I don't know. It's a mystery. Scene 184 VIOLA: But all ends well. WILL: How does it? VIOLA: I don't know. It's a mystery. Callback 3 MAKEPEACE: I say a plague on both their houses! Will makes a mental note ALLEYN AS MERCUTIO: (to ROMEO) … A plague o’ both your houses

Scott, Henslowe also likes to say, "you mean.." As in when Will says he's going to write a sonnet and Henslowe says, "You mean a play." I recall seeing Marc Norman's original script a while back. Do you know a source for it? It would be interesting to see if any of his dialogue was kept after the estimable Tom Stoppard worked on it. I also love the montage of the love-making, writing, reading and playing of the lines in rehearsal. (I loved Fennyman's epiphany when he went from The Money to theater lover!) Here we have lines from a play basically spoken as dialogue, and this is devastatingly done when Viola steps in as Juliet at the last minute and the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet ironically seems as if spoken between Will and Viola of themselves and their dilemma. It's also fun trying to spot dialogue that quotes other plays by Shakespeare. I cherish this movie!

OK, here are some examples I picked: Repetition: Will’s assurance several times about the play: “It’s all locked safe in here.” As a writer, I love that line… a combination of assuring others of your own brilliance, as well as to admitting to your tendency to procrastinate…! “It’s a mystery” - I think this was repeated even more than 3 times, wasn’t it? (Too bad we can’t search the pdf). I believe Henslowe said it once early on, then twice near the end, before VIola repeated it. I have to say that I did not find this repetition that convincing - sure, it was clever, but it seemed a bit contrived. Yes, found them: Sc19/p20 to Fennyman Sc145/p113 to Will Sc150/p115 to Will And finally Sc184/p127: VIOLA: But all ends well. WILL:? How does it? ?VIOLA:? I don’t know. It’s a mystery. Indirect dialogue: Sc29/p30: Will and “Thomas’s” first conversation - they do not answer one another’s questions. Clever or captivating dialogue: Sc41/p36 - I like this one for the Shakespearian double-talk: WESSEX: Is she obedient? ?SIR ROBERT: ?(confessing) As any mule in Christendom. But if you are the man to ride her, there are rubies in the saddle-bag. WESSEX:? I like her Sc109/p84 - LOVE this line! BURBAGE: Where is that thieving hack who can’t keep his pen in his own inkpot!? Sc175/p122 I love it, in the final play scene, when Viola is acting Juliet’s part and the Nurse involuntarily cals out from the audience “Dead!” - both foreshadowing as well as revealing the Nurse’s simple character - and funny. And then of course I love the Queen’s dialogue. It’s like she has these two cameos - and each time she is wise and all-seeing. She had warned Wessex that if he ever loses his wife, he should look for her in the theatre (and I find this a very clever foreshadowing, because the Queen was not referring to Viola’s love for Will but to her passion for the theatre… but when we come around to it the second time, her Attractor is her lover, Will, and not the theatre itself): Sc183p126? QUEEN: Why, Lord Wessex! Lost your wife so soon? WESSEX: Indeed I am a bride short. How is this to end? Subtext: Sc 113/p87 - like this one for both its humour, and how it shows Viola’s innocence: VIOLA AS THOMAS: (looking around guardedly. To WILL) Is this a tavern? WILL: It is also a tavern.

Some of Elizabeth's dialogue is fantastic. For example - Have her then, but you are a lordly fool. She has been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you. It takes a woman to know it. It feels broadly right for the period, but it's clear and accessible writing. It flies in the face of what we might expect - sisterly loyalty between two women both bound by duty - by spilling Viola's secret. And there's a sort of mischief-making superiority about it: a powerful woman who can say what she wants and doesn't care about the consequences. Perfect for an all-powerful monarch.