Directed by John Madden. Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.

William Shakespeare

• Love denied blights the soul we owe to God.

• [last lines] My story starts at sea... a perilous voyage to an unknown land... a shipwreck... the wild waters roar and heave... the brave vessel is dashed all to pieces, and all the helpless souls within her drowned... all save one... a lady... whose soul is greater than the ocean... and her spirit stronger than the sea's embrace... not for her a watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story... for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name... Viola.

Viola De Lesseps

• I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could dream myself into a company of players.

• [to her Nurse] I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, 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.

Queen Elizabeth

• I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.

Dialogue

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?

Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman: How?

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Lord Wessex: [about Viola] Is she obedient?

Sir Robert de Lesseps: As any mule in Christendom - but if you are the man to ride her, there are rubies in the saddlebag.

Lord Wessex: I like her!

Viola De Lesseps: [after her first experience with sex] I would not have thought it: there IS something better than a play!

William Shakespeare: There is.

Viola De Lesseps: Even your play.

William Shakespeare: Hmm?

Viola De Lesseps: And that was only my first try.

Philip Henslowe: The show must... you know...

William Shakespeare: [prompting him] Go on!

Lord Wessex: How is this to end?

Queen Elizabeth: As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.

Taglines

• A Comedy About the Greatest Love Story Almost Never Told...

• Love is the only inspiration.

Cast

• Joseph Fiennes - Will Shakespeare
• Gwyneth Paltrow - Viola De Lesseps
• Judi Dench - Queen Elizabeth
• Geoffrey Rush - Philip Henslowe
• Colin Firth - Lord Wessex
• Tom Wilkinson - Hugh Fennyman
• Ben Affleck - Ned Alleyn
• Steve O'Donnell - Lambert
• Tim McMullen - Frees
• Steven Beard - Makepeace
• Patrick Barlow - Will Kempe
• Martin Clunes - Richard Burbage
• Rupert Everett - Christopher Marlowe
• Sandra Reinton - Rosaline
• Simon Callow - Edmund Tylney
• Imelda Staunton - Nurse
• Jill Baker - Lady De Lesseps
• Nicholas Le Prevost - Sir Robert De Lesseps
• Joe Roberts - John Webster