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.
Fennyman: So what do we do?
Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Fennyman: How?
Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Fennyman: Henslowe! Do you know what happens to a man who doesn't pay his debts? His boots catch fire!

Lord Wessex: I have spoken with your father.
Viola: So, my lord? I speak with him every day.

Fennyman: What's the title?
Henslowe: Romeo and Ethel the Pirates Daughter.
Fennyman: Good title.

Nurse: My lady, the house is stirring. It is a new day.
Viola: It is a new WORLD.

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.

Viola: I would not have thought it: there IS something better than a play!
Will: There is.
Viola: Even your play.
Will: Hmm?
Viola: And that was only my first try.

Alleyn: Pay attention and you will see how genius creates a legend.

Lord Wessex: How is this to end?
Queen Elizabeth: As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.

Viola as Juliet: I do remember well where I should be, and there I am -- where is my Romeo?
Nurse: *weeping* Dead!

Queen Elizabeth: Fifty pounds! A very worthy sum on a very worthy question. Can a play show us the very truth and nature of love? I bear witness to the wager, and will be the judge of it as occasion arises. I have not seen anything to settle it yet.

Will: 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.