Quote of Shakespeare in Love
WILL: (shouting to VIOLA AS THOMAS) Did you give her my letter?
THOMAS: (calling back) And this is for you!
(WILL climbs into THOMAS'S boat and reads the letter.)
WILL: Oh, Thomas! She has cut my strings. I am unmanned, unmended, and unmade, like a puppet in a box.
BOATMAN: Writer is he?
WILL: (yells at BOATMAN) Row your boat! (to THOMAS) She tells me to keep away. She is to marry Lord Wessex. What should I do?
THOMAS: If you love her, you must do what she asks.
WILL: And break her heart and mine?
THOMAS: It is only yours you can know.
WILL: She loves me, Thomas!
THOMAS: Does she say so?
WILL: No. And yet she does where the ink has run with tears. Was she weeping when she gave you this?
THOMAS: I...Her letter came to me by the Nurse.
WILL: Your aunt?
THOMAS: Yes, my aunt. But perhaps she wept a little. Tell me how you love her, Will.
WILL: Like a sickness and its cure together.
THOMAS: Yes, like rain and sun, like cold and heat. Is your lady beautiful? Since I came to visit from the country, I have not seen her close. Tell me, is she beautiful?
WILL: (looking into THOMAS'S eyes) Oh, if I could write the beauty of her eyes! I was born to look in them and know myself.
THOMAS: And her lips?
WILL: Oh, Thomas, her lips! The early morning rose would wither on the branch, if it could feel envy.
THOMAS: And her voice? Like lark song?
WILL: Deeper. Softer. None of your twittering larks. I would banish nightingales from her garden before they interrupt her song.
THOMAS: She sings too?
WILL: Constantly. Without doubt. And plays the lute, she has a natural ear. And her bosom-did I mention her bosom?
THOMAS: What of her bosom?
WILL: Oh Thomas, a pair of pippins. As round and rare as golden apples.
THOMAS: I think the lady is wise to keep your love at a distance. For what lady could live up to it close to, when her eyes and lips and voice may be no more beautiful than mine? Besides, can a lady born to wealth and noble marriage love happily with a Bankside poet and player?
WILL: Yes, by God! Love knows nothing of rank or riverbank! It will spark between queen and the poor vagabond who plays the King, and their love shoud be minded by each, for love denied blights the soul we owe to God! So tell my lady, William Shakespeare waits for her in the garden!
THOMAS: But what of Lord Wessex?
WILL: For one kiss, I would defy a thousand Wessexes.
(The boat arrives at the De Lessepses' house. THOMAS kisses WILL on the mouth. WILL gives a really cool expression.)
VIOLA: Oh, Will! (she gives the BOATMAN a coin and runs to her house)
BOATMAN: Thank you, my lady!
WILL: Lady?
BOATMAN: Viola de Lesseps. Known her since she was this high. Wouldn't deceive a child...