Richard Burbage: The Master of the Revels despises us all for vagrants and peddlers of bombast. But my father James Burbage had the first license to make a company of players from Her Majesty, and he drew from poets the literature of the age. We must show them that we are men of parts. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain is yours.
Hugh Fennyman: Henslowe! Do you know what happens to a man who doesn't pay his debts? His boots catch fire!
Queen Elizabeth: Have her then but you're a lordly fool. She's been plucked since I saw her last and not by you. It takes a woman to know it.
Lord Wessex: My lady the tide waits for no man, but I swear it would wait for you.
Viola De Lesseps: Yes, you were deceived, for I did not know how much I loved you.
Ned Alleyn: Pay attention and you will see how genius creates a legend.
Viola de Lesseps: I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could dream myself into a company of players.
Viola De Lesseps: I love you Will beyond poetry.
Viola De Lesseps: 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.