Anonymous

& Prologue: Our Shakespeare... For he is all of ours, is he not? The most performed playwright of all time. The author of 37 plays... a hundred and fifty-four sonnets... and several narrative poems that are collectively known... as the ultimate expressions of humanity in the English language. And yet.... And yet... not a single manuscript of any kind... has ever been found written in Shakespeare’s own hand. In 400 years, not one document.

& Queen Elizabeth I: Are you the gift, my gracious little man?
    Dwarf: No, no, my most majestic Majesty. I am a free man. My gift is a play.
    William Cecil: A play? Plays are the work of the devil... born from a cesspool* of plague, whoredom*, thievery... fornication* and heresy*.

& Queen: Comedy or tragedy?
    Dwarf: Comedy, Majesty.
    Queen: Comedy. By whom?
    Dwarf: By Anonymous, Your Majesty.

& Edward, Earl of Oxford: I enjoyed your little comedy, Jonson. You have great potential.
    Ben Jonson: Thank you, my lord.
    Edward: But its politics did have quite an effect on the Tower. My father-in-law’s men felt it quite seditious*.
    Jonson: Politics? My play has nothing to do with politics! It’s just a simple comedy.
    Edward: That showed your betters as fools who would barely get food... from plate to mouth without the cleverness of their servants. All art is political, Jonson. Otherwise, it would just be decoration. And all artists have something to say. Otherwise, they’d make shoes. And you are not a cobbler*, are you, Jonson?

& Jonson: A play, my lord?
    Edward: One you shall stage Bankside.
    Jonson: Stage?
    Edward: Under your name.
    Jonson: My name, my lord?
    Edward: I can’t very well use my name, can I? I’m the 17th Earl of Oxford. The Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Viscount Bolebec... Lord of Escales, Sanford and Badlesmere, etc. I have a reputation to protect. In my world, one does not write plays, Jonson. People like you do.

& Edward: And composition? Poetry?
    William Cecil: This is a Puritan home, my lord. We believe such activities to be the worship of false idols... and therefore a sin before the eyes of God.

& Jonson: No. No, I won’t do it! It would be an affront against the Muses.
    William Shakespeare: How much money did you say he gave you?..
    Jonson: You think my name can be bought?!
    Shakespeare: No, no, no, not at all. No. I think we should keep your good name quite intact.

& Edward: A romantic tragedy. In iambic pentameter.
    Jonson: All of it?.. Is that possible?
    Edward: Of course it is.

& Edward: Will Shakespeare. William... Shake... Speare.

---

& Anne: Why must you write? Why must you continue to humiliate my family?
    Edward: The voices, Anne. The voices, I can’t stop them. They come to me. When I sleep, when I wake, when I sup. When I walk down the hall. The sweet longings of a maiden, the surging ambitions of a courtier... the designs of a murderer, the pleas of his victims. Only when I put their words, their voices, to parchment... are they cast loose, freed. Only then is my mind quieted. At peace. I would go mad if I didn’t write down the voices.
    Anne: Are you possessed?
    Edward: Maybe I am.

& Shakespeare: Ben, I’m an actor! Every inch of me... right down to my very toes. I want to.... No, I crave to act!
    Jonson: So bloody well act like a writer. And, for God’s sake, keep off the stage. Writers do not have time to act.

& Queen: Cecil told me your match was one of love...
    Edward: So he would wish. But how could one love the Moon after having seen the Sun?

& Shakespeare: I need more money.
    Edward: I beg your pardon?
    Shakespeare: My lord, my expenses have enlarged... Err... Aggrandized*. Since all this began.
    Edward: Aggrandized?
    Shakespeare: Yeah, aggrandized. And... if your lordship does not agree to an increase in my fee... then I shall be forced to make certain facts public.

& Edward: How much?
    Shakespeare: Four hundred pounds... A year.

& Jonson: Here!
    Shakespeare: A quill?
    Jonson: Write something for us. Amaze us with your verse. Your wit. No? Well... Try astounding us with the letter E... Or an I? It’s just a straight line.
    Shakespeare: ..... Well... you haven’t got any ink.

& Edward: Words... Words will prevail with Elizabeth. Not swords.

& Edward: Oh, and congratulations. You’ve had a poem published today.
    Shakespeare: Published? What, do you mean like in a book?

& Queen: Did your father tell you of the child?
    Robert Cecil: Which one, Your Majesty?

& A whore: Fancy a tumble? Only tuppence.

& Thomas Dekker: How do you think it ends?
    Thomas Nashe: No doubt, tragically.

& Edward: Elizabeth... would never have...
    Robert Cecil: What? Slept with her son? I don’t think she ever knew, to tell you the truth. Though you never know with the Tudors. They all have had such strange tastes in bedfellows.

& Earl of Essex: Strike true. ... God save the queen!

& Anne: Get out! You, your friends, your blasphemous theater... have brought ruin and dishonor to this family.
    Jonson: Ruin? Dishonor? My lady... you, your family, even I... even Queen Elizabeth herself... will be remembered solely because we had the honor to live... whilst your husband put ink to paper.

& King James I: We had seen some of this Shakespeare’s plays... in Edinburgh, Sir Robert. I must tell you, we enjoyed them immensely... and look forward to seeing many more, now that we’re in London. I assume you’re as avid a theater man as myself.
    Robert Cecil: Of course, Your Majesty.

& Prologue: Though our story is at an end, our poet’s is not; for his monument is everliving. Not of stone but of verse. And it shall be remembered. As long as words are made of breath. And breath of life.

--
cesspool — выгребная яма
whoredom, fornication — блуд
heresy — ересь
seditious — мятежный
cobbler — сапожник
Aggrandized — увеличенный

+ quotes on the Imdb.

__ In short, the manuscripts do not burn.

oskinpavel: "Фильм просто оглушил. Все, что мы знали о Шекспире- полная хрень! Я уже часа 2 после просмотра не вылажу из интернета и нахожу целую кучу материалов, подтверждающих идею фильма. У меня чешется язык, но я не буду вам рассказывать, лучше посмотрите, вряд ли пожалеете!"