Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Judi Dench: Queen Elizabeth

Photos 

Quotes 

• Queen Elizabeth : I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.

• Lord Wessex : How is this to end?

  Queen Elizabeth : As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.

• Queen Elizabeth : [after inspecting Viola]  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.

  Lord Wessex : [angrily]  Marlowe!

• Queen Elizabeth : Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust, but they cannot make it true.

  Viola De Lesseps : Oh, but they can!

• Queen Elizabeth : You are an eager boy. Did you like the play?

  John Webster : I liked it when she stabbed herself, Your Majesty.

• Queen Elizabeth : And tell Master Shakespeare, something more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night.

• Queen Elizabeth : [to Lord Wessex, about Viola]  Have her, then, but you are a lordly fool. She's been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you.

• Queen Elizabeth : Mr. Tilney! Have a care with my name - you will wear it out!

• 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.

• Queen Elizabeth : The Queen of England does not attend exhibitions of public lewdness. So, something is out of joint.

• Viola De Lesseps : I love theater. To have stories acted for me by a company of fellows is in deed...

  Queen Elizabeth : They're not acted for you, they're acted for me. And?

  Viola De Lesseps : And I love poetry above all.

  Queen Elizabeth : Above Lord Wessex?

  Queen Elizabeth : [to Wessex]  My Lord, when you cannot find your wife, you better look for her at the Playhouse.

• Queen Elizabeth : Too late. Too late.