An outline of notes taken yesterday during a second viewing of "Shakespeare in Love."

Steven Marx

smarx@calpoly.edu

 

  1. Shakespeare in Love Notes 1/9/99--revised September 20 2003 and indexed to DVD chapters.
    1. Themes and Allusions [A] noted
  2. Opening sequence Chapter 1
    1. tribute to opening of Olivier Henry V's
      1. historical reconstruction of performance of RJ and of frame
    2. preliminary titles: two playhouses fighting--London 1593--War of the Theatres
    3. camera pans thatched roof and cranes down through theatre--the little O that like the Globe contains the world
    4. focus on playbill--story of Moneylender; sound of cries offscreen
  3. Fennyman [Pennyman]--"I'm the money" and Mafioso thugs torturing Henslowe for debt repayment Chapter 2
    1. Show business is cutthroat and materialistic; show must go on; no business like show business [theme 1]
      1. Groundlings and backsides
    2. Offers share in play; cheat the playwright, who’s working on it now–writing a play [theme 2]
  4. Titles--Close up on Shakespeare writing Chapter 3
    1. inkstained fingers, practising signature--[A--there are many Shakespeare signatures in different spellings]. [theme 3: search for self and identity--the future Shakespeare being formed]
    2. souvenir from Stratford on Avon on his cup
    3. Film title being written on an overlay as he writes on the page--another superimposition of present on past
  5. Conversation with Henslowe
    1. play not ready yet, H. desperate
    2. looking for inspiration; feeling empty inside [theme 4]
      1. the Muse Aphrodite or the one "who does it behind the dog and trumpet"
      2. coarse associates vs. sensitive poet and lover [RJ]
      3. Dialogue: each of them is putting on the other--their lines disguising their real meaning as in Shakespeare
        1. "I am a dead man and buggered to boot"
    3. Sh. tries to get 50 pounds from H. to buy share in Burbage's company--that will happen at the end, when 50 pounds is won in bet about a play telling truth about love [opening and closing motif–theme 5]
  6. Confession scene
    1. Parson preaching against theatre on the way there [A]--
      1. Rose (Theatre) smells rank [sonnets]
      2. Plague on both your houses [RJ]
    2. Romeo going to see ghostly confessor--Friar Laurence [RJ]
    3. "Words words words" Hamlet Chapter 4
      1. bawdy double meanings from beginning of [RJ]
      2. Lost gift--quill broke--proud tower fallen--open latch with wilted herring
      3. Wordplay of many sorts--answering Friar's queries with double meanings--Shakespearean comic misprision
    4. Discloses failed marriage [biographical A]
      1. Marriage for property; banishment from Stratford--speculative biography
    5. Given magic bangle with name placed inside [RJ Friar]
  7. At the Palace
    1. After "cooling heels"(sight gag) Henslowe follows him to Whitehall Chapter 5
    2. Burbage's rival company and theatre: Chamberlain's men ready to perform for the queen
      1. Burbage has stolen Shakespeare's comic script from Henslowe; gives Sh. an advance on next script; Shakespeare two-timing Henslowe.
    3. Burbage and Shakespeare as rivals for the loose lady [A to the William the Conqueror joke–John Manningham’s diary 1602]
      1. "Upon a time when Burbage played Richard III there was a citizen grew so far in liking with him, that before she went from the play she appointed him to come that night unto her by the name of Richard III. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained and at his game ere Burbage came. The message being brought that Richard III was at the door, Shakespeare caused return to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard III."
    4. Mistress Rosaline Sh.'s first muse gets the bracelet [RJ--Romeo's first love]; she loves him but sleeps with Burbage her boss; he sleeps with her but doesnt love her
    5. Performing Sh's comedy One Gentleman [2GV]
      1. people want love and a bit with a dog
      2. Will Kemp the clown and dog Crab [A] Text of Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.4:
        1. When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I saved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it. I have taught him, even as one would say precisely, 'thus I would teach a dog.' I was sent to deliver him as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber but he steps me to her trencher and steals her capon's leg: O, 'tis a foul thing when a cur cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hanged for't; sure as I live, he had suffered for't; you shall judge. He thrusts me himself into the company of three or four gentlemanlike dogs under the duke's table: he had not been there--bless the mark!--a pissing while, but all the chamber smelt him. 'Out with the dog!' says one: 'What cur is that?' says another: 'Whip him out' says the third: 'Hang him up' says the duke. I, having been acquainted with the smell before, knew it was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs: 'Friend,' quoth I, 'you mean to whip the dog?' 'Ay, marry, do I,' quoth he. 'You do him the more wrong,' quoth I; ''twas I did the thing you wot of.' He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would do this for his servant? Nay, I'll be sworn, I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen, otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for't. Thou thinkest not of this now. Nay, I remember the trick you served me when I took my leave of Madam Silvia: did not I bid thee still mark me and do as I do? when didst thou see me heave up my leg and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? didst thou ever see me do such a trick?
        2. queen loves comedy; throws food to dog, laughs and falls asleep at Proteus' poetry
    6. Viola in attendance; loves the poetry; depressed Sh. sees her first time
    7. Goes home and tries to write again
  8. Viola introduced through dialogue with nurse Chapter 6
    1. stage wont show true love if girls are played by men [A]
      1. not artful postures but love that overthrows life
        1. artificial vs real love [RJ]
        2. stage love can be real [A]
    2. well born vs. well monied [A]
    3. she resents being commodity of father in marriage[A]
    4. wants poetry and adventure and love
  9. Theatre intrigue
    1. Allow me to explain theatre business: impossible obstacles, unthinkable outcome, somehow it works: "it's a mystery" [Theme 4] Chapter 7
    2. Tilney the censor [A]
    3. opening and closing theatres supposedly because of plague
    4. Sh. agrees to write Romeo and Rosaline for Burbage but finds Ros in bed with Tilney and burns new manuscript
    5. Burbage readying for new Marlowe play--Everything about Marlowe deflates Shakespeare's self confidence
    6. Marlowe at the bar Chapter 8
      1. restaurant scene--specials announced on way in
      2. Marlowe gives him plotline--especially Mercutio story [bloody and crazy guy; Alleyn who plays Mercutio, is great Marlowe fan]
    7. Back at Rose, Henslowe recruiting new actors since Admirals men away because of plague
      1. At auditions all applicants quote Marlowe
      2. Henslowe creditor: a tailor who stutters plays chorus/prince [MND]
      3. Thomas Kent [Lear]--Viola in disguise--recites not Marlowe, but Sh.'s lines from 2Gentlemen]
  10. Sh. and Kent
    1. A "Balcony Scene"--Sh. falls for her as boy [12th Night–Orsino; AYLI-- Orlando] after having seen her as fan and because she adores him--no mustache
    2. Chases her through streets and on boat on Thames--"follow that boat" Chapter 9
      1. I had Marlowe in my boat once
    3. De Lesseps house--information from Nurse that V. is engaged to Wessex
    4. Bride bargaining and Will courting--alternating scenes
    5. Wessex bargaining with Mr. and Mrs. DeLesseps
      1. Wessex + Lesseps=less sex
      2. See Olivia/Viola/Malvolio anagrams
    6. Sh. gives script to Kent to give to Viola–Orsino/Cesario/Olivia and
    7. Parents out of town
  11. The party at De Lesseps[RJ] Chapter 10
    1. another first encounter
    2. Dance scene--as in play on stage later; [A] Zeff. film-- hiding and stalking and changing partners
    3. Wessex watches and is jealous--[A]Tybalt
    4. Takes knife to Sh. asks name; answered "Christopher Marlowe at your service"
  12. Balcony scene [RJ and Zeff] Chapter 11
    1. Anon...Anon
    2. shriek encounter with nurse
    3. I'm fortune's fool--tragic motif [A]
  13. Will finds Muse; play coming into being [MND] [Theme 2]
    1. back to writing, quill, fingers, pages
    2. passing out parts and rehearsing first scene at Rose--his self confidence returned, with his potency
    3. pirate king become a nurse
    4. Author making speech
    5. Fennyman interested
    6. Admiral's men back
  14. Ned Allyn takes control from Fennyman who defers [Power struggle: Alleyn, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Pennyman]
    1. I am Tamburlaine and Faustus and Barrabas the Jew of Malta, and yes, Henry VI
    2. Talent vs. money in theatre
    3. Ned takes over [A]
      1. Samuel Johnson(1765): "…Mr Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that ‘he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been killed by him.’"
      2. Shakespeare offers Ned role of Mercutio and he accepts. Shakespeare's spontaneous and compulsive lying: name of the play is "Mercutio"
    4. John Webster likes Titus Andronicus [A]--cat and mice
    5. Juliet's voice dropping
    6. Pennyman: I saw Alleyn in Tamburlaine; there's no one like Marlowe
    7. Sh. coaching Kent on playing Romeo--with mustache and wig--save the most for climax–reference to this film
    8. Kent employed to take sonnet [A] to Viola–epistolary stage business
  15. Viola and Wessex Chapter 12
    1. Gets home in time to meet him; nurse gets off beard
    2. Wessex is condescending and brutal--tobacco plantations, kisses her, gets slapped
    3. Says Queen will force marriage
    4. Viola answers sonnet with letter saying she'll be married–like two antagonists to Romeo, Tybalt and Paris
  16. Rose Theatre
    1. Alleyn rehearsing the dance--Viola playing Romeo responds to "Lady" instruction
    2. Alleyn dissatisfied with small role--"disappears for the length of a Bible"--but conned by Will with big speech--Queen Mab [A]
  17. Sh. and Kent Chapter 13
    1. They ride together in boat as Will goes to visit Viola. Kent [like Rosalind/Ganymede in AYLI] tests his love for his mistress "Tell her how you love her" [complex deceptions on her part; more lies to get at the truth]
    2. Describing her with florid poetry--especially her bosom like pippins [these apples keep drawing attention]
    3. Ends up kissing Kent and being confused [Orsino in Trevor Nunn’s 12th night]–romantic/comic moment interrupted by the boatman: "are you a writer, I'm a bit of one myself." Chapter 14
  18. First sex scene [actors are older than texts’ and Zeffirelli’s R and J.; less daring]
    1. Undressing Kent to find Viola [revealing their true identities]
    2. Wants to reveal his marriage; she's a maid, but passes over it
    3. Nurse keeps guard
    4. Bound breasts
    5. something better than a play
    6. morning aubade [A] Owl and nightingale--not lark
  19. Rehearsing Romeo and Juliet–reference to text 2.2 Chapter 15
    1. Sh. objects to Kent kissing Juliet--gender bending
    2. Sh. kisses Viola on and off stage; progress of writing script interwoven with progress of their love
    3. Alternates their lovemaking in bed, backstage, onstage; actors and audience captivated by poetry--as are we
    4. Sexual climax at the line "boundless as the sea"--with music–this is verbal climax of text scene-
    5. Literary mergings are mergings of love
  20. The tragic plot Chapter 16
    1. Ned Allyn suggests title Romeo and Juliet, calls him Warwickshire shithouse [A collaborative]
    2. parting sweet sorrow; as they part and feel separation, Sh. works out the second tragic half of plot
    3. "this is not life it is a stolen season"–good line, whose?
  21. Wessex comes to take her to Greenwich--"Gloriana the old boot" [A] Chapter 17
    1. Will as Wilhelmina–disguise plot
    2. Wessex refers to penny a page hack
    3. Will puts down Marlowe and again rats on him--"lovely waistcoat, shame about the poety"
    4. Queen interrogates Viola about her love of theatre--playwrights teach us nothing
    5. Viola contradicts queen
      1. tribute to theatre and poetry vs. Nature and truth are enemies of playacting
      2. [A] discourse about theatre--cf. Hamlet and MND
    6. Wessex' fifty pound wager
      1. [wager at ending of Shrew--but opposite; he is a negative Petruchio]
      2. also court of troubadours
      3. can a play show us very truth and nature of love--Viloa says one play can--vs. Wessex' idea of love
    7. Queen tells Wessex "she's been plucked since I've seen her last"
  22. Theatre trade Chapter 18
    1. Marlowe to Burbage who's screwing Rosaline; Marlowe keeps back last act of Massacre of Paris and heads for Deptford, where he will die
    2. Romeo script going to Henslowe--Rosaline's necklace breaks showing Sh's name--Burbage angry
      1. [A] William the Conqueror again
    3. Burbage and men come and fight with Henslowes over Shakespeare's script in RJ fight scene [A]; Fennyman loves it--happy brawl
    4. Will and Viola kiss under the stage
  23. The Whorehouse [Measure for Measure, Henry IV] Chapter 19
    1. Retire to Fennyman's whorehouse--the liberties--everybody drunk
    2. Will gives him Apothecary's part to keep him from getting Kent to "dip your wick"
    3. Kent--Viola learns that Will is married; storms out; news of Marlowe's death--double tragic interruption of comic moment
      1. He was the first man among us--Ned Alleyn
    4. Corresponds to moment of tragic death of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet
  24. Church scenes of guilt
    25. Chapter 20
    1. Will's guilt for both; he prays like Henry or Claudius[A]
    2. Wessex happily tells Viola Will is dead; goes with her to church [like Romeo hearing of Juliet's death]
    3. Will shows up looking like ghost of Banquo [A] Wessex flees guiltily
  25. More tragic turning Chapter 21
    1. Will's despair with Viola but her encouragement
      1. Marlowe's touch was in my Titus Andronicus
    2. passing out scripts for act III as will narrates story of last scenes, which are most tragic
    3. Chapter 22 more intermix between RJ and Will/Viola--the Aubade scene written and gifted to her--earlier viewed in the frame--the language of "jocund day"--she's learning Juliet's lines
  26. Theatre intrigue
    1. Webster spies for Tilney--"You will go far I fear"
    2. Chapter 23 Fennyman learning his lines
    3. Wessex comes and fights with Shakespeare--stage rapier bends; Shakespeare wins. Webster watches
    4. Clarification that Marlowe died "over a bill" not a "billing" [A]
    5. Webster reveals Kent is female with rat in tunic--more on bubbies
    6. Tilney closes the Rose at Wessex's instigation
    7. Chapter 24 Viola forced to go home
    8. Burbage stands up for players and lets them do RJ in his theatre after speech defending art
    9. Since Kent is gone, Will will play Romeo
  27. Viola's marriage
    1. Viola strapped into wedding dress; Wessex collecting 5K pounds plus 50 "to settle accounts"
    2. Will finds her coming out of church married; tells her a Juliet's needed--
    3. Nurse delays Wessex at Coach while Viola escapes
  28. Denouement--its endlessness [A--RJ, 12th night, AYLI] Chapter 25
    1. people assemble at Curtain theatre
    2. Puritan preacher preaching--"Vice is made a show"--dragged in by crowd
    3. backstage and frontstage tension--like MND, Olivier HV and other show business plots [A]
    4. Prologue stutters and then finds voice--"it's a mystery"-- [cf. Shawn Chu as Barnardine]
    5. Another problem with voice: Juliet's voice is broken
    6. Theatrical buildup of tension--Juliet enters audience and is recruited to play Juliet Chapter 26
    7. "The show must...you know, go on"
    8. Wessex shows up in balcony
    9. Juliet's late and dramatic entrance: "Madam I am here"--[clown's entrance in WT]--best moment in film--her profile and appearance as shy young girl--"how stands your decision to be married"
    10. Chapter 27 Quick scan of RJ-- including entrance of apothecary and his stealing of lines [MND] to death scene at end;
    11. Romeo's death; audience's gasp when Juliet wakes up. Nurse yells out;
    12. Chapter 28 Audience silent at end and then wild applause, including parson
    13. Will and Viola kiss on bier behind actors–love and death
    14. The soldiers come in from backstage and Tilney arrests everyone, saying "that woman is a woman."
    15. Queen intrigue:
      1. The queen appears in the audience and stops Tilney
      2. Calls Viola as "Master Kent", who blows it with a curtsy instead of bow
      3. Corrects Tilney--everybody knows this is illusion, but she creates the reality of gender [A: Shrew/ royal will]
      4. I know something of woman in man's profession
      5. Chapter 29 Wessex interrupts queen outside theatre saying he's a bride short
      6. return to wager of 50 pounds--Wessex has to give to shakespeare
      7. Queen asks Shakespeare to come to her and write something more cheerful for 12th night [A]
      8. "Lady Wessex sent to take money to him [enough to buy into Chamberlains men]
      9. Gag about cloaks and mudpuddle; Queen wont wait and walks through it
    16. Finale
      1. Viola and Sh. come up with the plot and characters for Twelfth night together..ship voyage, storm, Orsino--she helps him come up with a plot, generated out of their experience
      2. all ends well, how so, it's a mystery
      3. always saying goodbye...write me well
      4. Chapter 30 --the writing of Twelfth Night--Viola transformed to Viola, my heroine for all time