Shakespeare in Love Page #5

DR. MOTH

I am here to help you. Tell me in your

own words.

WILL:

I have lost my gift.

(not finding this easy)

It's as if my quill is broken. As if

the organ of the imagination has dried

up. As if the proud tower of my genius

has collapsed.

DR. MOTH

Interesting.

WILL:

Nothing comes.

DR. MOTH

Most interesting.

WILL:

It is like trying to a pick a lock

with a wet herring.

DR. MOTH

(shrewdly)

Tell me, are you lately humbled in the

act of love?

WILL turns towards him. How did he know that?

DR. MOTH (CONT'D)

How long has it been?

WILL:

A goodly length in times past, but

lately

DR. MOTH

No, no. You have a wife, children

The sand runs through the hourglass.

LATER:

Not much sand left.

WILL:

I was a lad of eighteen. Anne Hathaway

was a woman, half as old again.

DR. MOTH

A woman of property?

WILL:

(shrugs)

She had a cottage. One day, she was

three months gone with child, so

DR. MOTH

And your relations?

WILL:

On my mother's side the Ardens

DR. MOTH

No, your marriage bed.

WILL:

Four years and a hundred miles away in

Stratford.

A cold bed too, since the twins were

born. Banishment was a blessing.

DR. MOTH

So now you are free to love

WILL:

yet cannot love nor write it.

DR. MOTH reaches for a glass snake bracelet.

DR. MOTH

Here is a bangle found in Psyche's

temple on Olympus cheap at four pence.

Write your name on a paper and feed it

in the snake.

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