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Shakespeare in Love is an award-winning 1998 romantic comedy film. The film was directed by John Madden and co-written by playwright Tom Stoppard, whose first major success was with the Shakespeare-influenced play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. The film is largely fictional, although several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, some of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.
Historical accuracyThe film is set in 1593. It makes no pretence at historical accuracy and features many comic anachronisms (such as a psychotherapist, a mug marked "A present from Stratford-on-Avon", a man leaping into a ferry and saying "Follow that boat!", and Henslowe anticipating the phrase "The show must go on!"). Some events contradict the historical record: for instance, it is unlikely that Lord Wessex and Viola would depart for the Americas in the 1590s, since the first successful English colony, Jamestown, was not established until 1607. References to Shakespeare's workThe main source for much of the action in the film is Romeo and Juliet, which the events in the film ultimately inspire Will to write. Will and Viola play out the famous balcony and bedroom scenes; like Juliet, Viola has a witty nurse, and is separated from Will by a gulf of duty (although not the family enmity of the play). In addition, the two lovers are equally 'star-crossed' — they are not ultimately destined to be together.
The film also features numerous sequences in which Shakespeare and the other characters utter words that will later appear in his plays:
Christopher Marlowe appears in the film as the master playwright whom everyone in the film considers the greatest English dramatist — this is humorous, since everyone in the audience knows what will eventually happen to Shakespeare. He gives Shakespeare a plot for his next play, Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter ("Romeo is Italian...always in and out of love...until he meets...Ethel. The daughter of his enemy! His best friend is killed in a duel by Ethel's brother or something. His name is Mercutio.") Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is quoted ad nauseam: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burned the topless towers of Ilium?" The child John Webster who plays with mice is a reference to the leading figure in the Jacobean generation of playwrights. His plays are known for their blood and gore, which is why he says that he enjoys Titus Andronicus, and why he says of Romeo and Juliet "I liked it when she stabbed herself". When the clown Will Kempe says to Shakespeare that he would like to play in a drama, he is told that "they would laugh at Seneca if you played it", a reference to the Roman tragedian renowned for his sombre and bloody plotlines which were a major influence on the development of English tragedy. Will is shown signing a paper repeatedly, with six relatively illegible signatures visible. This is a reference to the fact that several versions of Shakespeare's signature exist — no two alike. The actor Ned Alleyn is upset that his lines as Mercutio are too short. After he recites his single line of "Oh I see Queen Mab hath been with you," he then complains that Mercutio disappears "for the length of a Bible." Shakespeare will then respond by lengthening his speech, for in reality, Mercutio's famous "Queen Mab" monologue is the longest in all of Shakespeare's plays. ControversyAfter the film's release, publications including Private Eye noted strong similarities between the film and the 1941 novel No Bed for Bacon, by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon, which also features Shakespeare falling in love and finding inspiration for his later plays. In a foreword to a subsequent edition of No Bed for Bacon (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love"), Ned Sherrin mentioned that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team, but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the novel. AwardsWins
Nominations
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