How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Shakespeare in Love.
Quote #1
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: Mr. Fennyman, I think you may have hit on something.
Anyone going to school for theatre or working in a community playhouse will feel this quote hit close to home. The actors in this time period must perform for love of the art, not money… because there isn't any money. Much like today, unless you're a Gwyneth or a Fiennes bro.
Quote #2
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
Considering no one believes that, at this point anyway, a play has accurately conveyed what it's like to love, we wonder if Will is overestimating his own artistic talents here. How many nuns go see his plays, anyway?
Quote #3
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. […] 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.
Here is what we were talking about. This line sets us up to see Romeo and Juliet for the first time, and to see what a groundbreaking play it is. Today, it's not as special because everyone knows it. But at the time, it was revolutionary.