Shakespeare in Love Page #3

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.

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