Shakespeare in Love Page #8

WILL:

Follow that boat!

BOATMAN:

Right you are, governor!

WILL sits in the stern of the boat and the BOATMAN sits

facing him, rowing lustily.

BOATMAN (CONT'D)

I know your face. Are you an actor?

WILL:

(oh God, here we go again)

Yes.

BOATMAN:

Yes, I've seen you in something. That

one about a king.

WILL:

Really?

BOATMAN:

I had the Christopher Marlowe in my

boat once.

EXT. THE RIVER. DAY.

LATER. The BOATMAN is puffing. WILL is looking ahead to

where THOMAS'S boat has reached a jetty on the farther

shore, a private jetty attached to a rich house on the

north bank. WILL sees THOMAS jump out of his boat and run

toward the house.

WILL:

Do you know that house?

BOATMAN:

Sir Robert De Lesseps.

EXT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. DAY.

WILL runs towards the house.

INT. DE LESSEPSES'S HOUSE. DAY.

THOMAS rushes up the back stairs, removing his hat. Her

hair tumbles down about her shoulders, so we will call

her VIOLA again.

INT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. VIOLA'S BEDROOM. DAY.

Her mother LADY DE LESSEPS, is talking to the NURSE.

LADY DE LESSEPS:

Where is she? Our guests are upon us, Lord Wessex too,

bargaining for a bride. My husband will have it settled

tonight.

Behind her, the door opens revealing VIOLA as THOMAS to

the NURSES view, but only for a moment. The door closes

again as LADY DE LESSEPS turns.

LADY DE LESSEPS (CONT'D)

Tomorrow he drags me off to the

country and it will be three weeks

gone before we return from our

estates.

A different door communicating to the next room, opens

and VIOLA comes in after a lightning dress change into a

robe. She curtseys to her mother.

VIOLA:

God save you, mother.

(to NURSE)

Ho water, nurse.

The NURSE looks at her, round-eyed.

INT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. KITCHEN. DAY.

From a cauldron on the stove, hot water is poured into

two pails, by the a KITCHEN BOY under the NURSE'S

command.

SCULLERY MAID (O.S.)

Thomas Kent, sir? No sir.

WILL (O.S.)

The actor

NURSE:

Who asks for him?

WILL has come to the kitchen door with a letter.

WILL:

William Shakespeare, actor, poet, and

playwright of the Rose.

The NURSE sends the SCULLERY MAID back to work.

NURSE:

Master Kent is…my nephew.

WILL:

(giving her the letter)

I will wait.

NURSE:

Much god may it do you.

INT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. VIOLA'S BATHROOM. EVENING.

VIOLA in her bath, reads WILL'S letter. The NURSE is

adding hot water to the tub.

VIOLA:

(delighted)

He sees himself in me! Romeo Montague,

a young man of Verona.

NURSE:

(unimpressed)

Verona again.

VIOLA:

(devouring the letter)

A comedy of quarreling families

reconciled in the discovery of Romeo

to be the very same Capulet cousin

stolen from the cradle and fostered to

manhood by his Montague mother that

was robbed of her own child by the

Pirate King!

EXT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. NIGHT.

WILL waits hopefully. The kitchen door opens and a

SERVANT flings a bucket of dirty water in the general

direction of the gutter. WILL hops nimbly aside and

escapes a soaking.

SERVANT:

Be off!

INT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. VIOLA'S BEDROOM. NIGHT.

The NURSE is helping VIOLA into her party dress.

NURSE:

Your mother, and your father

VIOLA:

(gaily)

From tomorrow, away in the country for

three weeks! Is Master Shakespeare not

handsome?

NURSE:

He looks well enough for a mountebank.

VIOLA:

Oh, Nurse! He would give Thomas Kent

the life of Viola De Lesseps's

dreaming.

NURSE:

(firmly)

My lady, this play will end badly. I

will tell.

VIOLA:

(twice as firmly)

You will not tell. As you love me and

as I love you, you will bind my breast

and buy me a boy's wig!

EXT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. NIGHT.

WILL spots a gaggle of MUSICIANS approaching, carrying

instruments. WILL recognizes them.

WILL:

Master Plum! What business here?

MUSICIAN:

A five shilling business, Will. We

play for the dancing.

The sound of hooves gives hardly any warning as a

GALLOPING HORSEMAN thunders through the MUSICIANS who

have to leap out of the way. It is WESSEX arriving at the

house, with his usual good manners. Will watches WESSEX

skid to a halt and enter the house.

INT. DE LESSEPSES' HOUSE. BANQUETING ROOM. NIGHT.

WILL has got in with the MUSICIANS. Competently enough he

strums along with them on the bandstand. Two dozen guests

are enough to crowd the space for dancing. WILL glances

around, looking for THOMAS KENT. He stops a passing

SERVANT, helping himself to a snack off the man's tray.

SERVANT:

Musicians don't eat, Sir Robert's

orders.

WILL:

I seek Master Thomas Kent.

It means nothing to the SERVANT who moves on. ANGLE ON

WESSEX and SIR ROBERT.

SIR ROBERT:

She is a beauty, my lord, as would

take a king to church for a dowry of a

nutmeg.

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