Shakespeare in Love

Trivia: The young boy in the film is John Webster. Webster himself became a famous playwright in the 1600's; his speciality was writing gruesome plays foregoing the love and tenderness of Shakespeare and Marlow. Could this be why we see his character feeding the mouse to the cat?

Tallicame

Trivia: Rupert Everett/Christopher Marlow 's name does not appear at any point in the credits at the end of the film. This was due to Everett's decision.

Trivia: Philip Henslowe's line "It's a mystery" is a clear reference to Jeffery Rush's (who played Henslowe) role as David in "Shine" (1996) who also says the same line many times.

Trivia: As of the 2013 ceremony, this is the most recent film to win both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars.

Cubs Fan

Factual error: About 20 minutes in when they are at some ball/dance thing, Shakespeare's talking with a musician holding a lute. You can see fret markers on the fretboard of his lute, but these were not used on instruments until the late 1800's, early 1900's, definitely not in Shakespeare's time. (00:27:20)

More mistakes in Shakespeare in Love

Queen Elizabeth: Have her then, but you're a lordly fool: she's been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you. Takes a woman to know it.

More quotes from Shakespeare in Love

Question: How did Will not recognise Viloa in her boy disguise? Even in disguise, you can clearly see it's her, and she didn't sound like a boy.

Answer: In real life, Viola, of course, would be recognized as a female in disguise. However, in literature, film, opera, etc, it often is necessary to employ what is known as a "suspension of disbelief." That is, the author expects the reader or audience to know something is impossible, unlikely, or completely unreal, but they have to accept a certain premise in order to allow the plot to unfold. We go along with the idea that no one realizes Viola is actually a woman, so that we can enjoy the overall story.

raywest

More questions & answers from Shakespeare in Love

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.