Lord Strange

TV Script

by David Seals

copyright 2015 by David Seals

all rights reserved

Act One
________________________________________________________

Pilot Episode

___________________________________________________________

EXTERIOR - DAY
Title Over:
On the Welsh-English Border, town of Chester, 1593

Classic 1593 street scene in Elizabethan Britain, with Tudor

buildings, crowds of merchants, poor and rich, horses, dirty
sewage, etc. Lots of busy people.

WISLAWA (voiceover, American accent)

It began not long ago when I answered an ad for a graduate
assistant.

ACT ONE
______________________________________________________
Credits
Title over:
Cambridge, Massachusetts, present day

INTERIOR - DAY - MODERN HOME IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

A fine study/library of rich panelled wood and leather
furniture, art work, tasteful furnishings.
WISLAWA, a young woman about 25, a college student, Jewish,
Lesbian, enters the room, to meet DR.GEORGES SVOBODA, 70,
distinguished, courteous white American; and DR.CHRISTIANE
GRUFFYDD, 50, distinguished Welsh Woman, both in suits.

GEORGES
Come in Wislawa, that's a fine Polish name. My ancestry is
also eastern European. And Dr. Christiane Gruffydd is
visting us from Wales.
WISLAWA
Oh, hello.
CHRISTIANE (shaking hands formally)
Your graduate assistant, Georges?
GEORGES
Yes. Please, have a seat. Would you like some tea?
WISLAWA
Oh, no thank you.

GEORGES (reading her papers, sitting at his big desk)

Fine references. Your master's study program is in 'Media
Communications'?

WISLAWA
Yes. Television production.

GEORGES
Good. That's what I need. I'm doing some research and am
tired of books, and, god forbid, websites.

WISLAWA
Really? Doctor Borchardt said you were working on a ...
uh ... well ... I'm familiar with your political histories
of course.
CHRISTIANE
I have to leave in a moment. Have you told her what we're
doing?
GEORGES
Not yet. Wislawa -CHRISTIANE
You are, I presume, young lady, familiar with the poem 'The
Phoenix and the Dove'?
WISLAWA
Uh, no ...
CHRISTIANE
Supposedly by one English usurper named Shakespeare. No. no.
WISLAWA
No?
CHRISTIANE
Does she know anything about what we're doing, Georges? I
don't have time for this. Young lady, in 1601 an obscure
little booklet of poems was published titled 'The Phoenix
and the Dove', a Turtle dove that is, by someone named
Robert Chester under the overall title of 'Love's Martyr'
that is. the important point is that, one, it was dedicated
to Sir John Salusbury, a notable Welsh Lord, who was married

to one Ursula Stanley, of the fabulously rich Stanleys of

Lancashire, an illegitimate daughter of the 4th Earl of
Derby such therewith. Are you following me? Two, a poem was
included in the booklet ascribed to William Shakespeare.
Thereby establishing a connection or relationship between
the Salusbury and Stanley families with the pseudonym of
Shakespeare.
WISLAWA
I don't follow you.
CHRISTIANE
Documentary proof of a Welsh connection to Shakespeare.
Ursula and Hubby had a castle in northern Wales, at Lleweni,
up by Denbigh.
WISLAWA
Ursula was, uh -- ?
CHRISTIANE
Jesus! The sister of the Bard.

GEORGES
Dr.Val Borchardt, who referred you to me for this job, is an
old friend, Wislawa, but I'm afraid she just doesn't approve
of my latest "eccentric" project. That's okay. We're having
fun, or at least I am. Christiane is some kind of fanatic.
Political science of course was my game for many years and
it still is, but I've been interested, well, forever, as
long as I can remember, in the so-called "mysteries" of
history. Famous men and women, you know, whom we know
nothing about? Who was Homer, really? Lao Tzu. That sort of
thing. The unknowns that have shaped us more than anything,
I think. Not that academia has much use for that.
CHRISTIANE
Oh shut up, Georges. I love you dearly but you're an old
windbag. Ms. Wislawa, we need you to research the shit out

of this topic. The National Library of Wales should have a

ton of information and correspondence about Sir John and his
wife - Ursula Salusbury, nee Stanley, got it? - no one has
found yet, because of a lack of looking.
GEORGES (good-natured)
Poor grammar, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE
English, second language.
WISLAWA
The National Library of Wales? Is this speculation?

GEORGES
Yes, well, no. It has to be based on fact, I'm still a
scientist in that sense, no matter how "crackpot" the
Establishment may call it. Who cares what they think? I have
my "Emeritus" security, I don't need it anymore, - the
approval - if I ever did. Good pension. A few royalties. But
let's get to the point, if you don't mind? You're hired if
you still want it?

WISLAWA
Of course. I just don't know what it is.

GEORGES
Precisely. That's the whole point. Mystery is a word lazy
minds like to use when they can't understand facts staring
them in the face. "Lord Strange" is the title of my new
work, but it's not a book or a website. It was also a title
of the Lords of Derby. Which, is on the border with Wales. I
want it to be a Televison series. I need you to shape it
into a script and a production, at least theoretically, for
me.

CHRISTIANE
Wales, goddamnit. Keep your focus. The Stanleys of northern
Wales, on the border with Lancashire up by Liverpool, were
direct descendants of the Welsh Tudor King Henry VII.
GEORGES
And he is the great Author.

WISLAWA
Who? Televison series? I'm not a writer.

GEORGES
Or whatever they call it. "A mini-series"? I think there's
more information in the story necessarily longer and more
erudite than a 2 hour feature film to entertain the masses.
I watch a lot of TV. "Pay-TV" that is; commercials are
abhorrent. I like it. Foreign programs. Some excellent
political, semi-fictionalized, histories have been produced
lately - 'The Borgias' for instance, in England or Ireland.
How true they are, or truer than long fat academic tomes
with ten thousand footnotes, I don't know. I don't even care
anymore. Anyway, Lord Strange. To get to the point, it's
about the "Shakespeare Authorship" question, which you may
have heard of. What you probably haven't heard of is my
analysis - and that of a very few other crackpots of the
theory, like this old bag here, - , that he, the famous
Bard, was one Earl of Derby named William Stanley. From your
blank expression I can see you haven't heard of him.
Excellent. That's the point - his point. He never wanted
anyone to know he wrote the famous Corpus of Hamlet and
Romeo and Juliet. Why?

WISLAWA
Wow.

CHRISTIANE
I'm out of here. Goodbye. I'll be back to expound upon the
Bibliography if Georges ever gets around to it. Cheerio,
kids. I have a flight to Cardiff. I'll send you stuff from
the Wales Library too.
WISLAWA
Ursula. 'Phoenix and the Turtledove'. Shakespeare's sister.
Got it.

She exits abruptly

GEORGES
Further, it leads to an even greater question of the
identity of a far more influential individual, and Time,
than even the British, that is Welsh, Bard. But that's for a
later discussion, and analysis, and perhaps a separate TV
show. So, how do we make all this boring talk and exposition
dramatic and interesting? Or, more to the point, why should
we even care to reach the sleeping human spectacle? What's
it to them? What's in it for them? I'll tell you - I don't
care. I want to know. And that's enough.

WISLAWA
Okay. I'm completely lost.

GEORGES
Good. Wouldn't this be a good place to cut to another scene,
such as, the crucial last good days of the Stanley Family in
1593, before the tragedies struck? Regard - here are some
etchings from the time of the Players in northern Wales and
England, not London, where the very very rich Stanleys were
doing a lot of theatre with their traveling troupes.

He shows her piles of paper and etchings, etc.

Lady Margaret Clifford Stanley, mother

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby

WISLAWA
Cut to 1593?

CUT:

A grand CASTLE and PLAYERS on a Stage in a large hall

entertaining rich nobles in the audience.

GEORGES (voiceover)
The Stanleys were great patrons of the arts - far far away
from the media glare of dirty old London town. That's one
big reason why they have largely escaped the attention of
scholars all these centuries. Muddy old roads, no
telephones, lots of infectious plagues and filthy
highwaymen. How could something as big as 'King Lear' or
'Macbeth' go undetected way way out there in the boondocks?

WISLAWA (voiceover)
Lots we don't know about. Without telecommunications? Can't
bombard the audience with facts though.

GEORGES (voiceover)

Mountains of facts. Forget the famous plays for now, and all
that anal analysis of every golden word of the Bard and his
mad, lovely Sonnets. Look at the traveling Troupes on the
highways, the hidden years of Shakespeare, crazy stories.
London is lost to the provinces - Lancashire, Wales,
Cheshire. Places we Americans have never heard of.

CUT BACK TO:

Our modern living room.

WISLAWA
Maybe I will have a glass of sherry, Professor.

GEORGES
Oh please, Georges. The Polish George. I don't want to be
Herr Docteur Professor anymore.

WISLAWA
Georges. You're talking about a huge budget, and extravagant
--

GEORGES (pouring them sherry)

Oh, I don't care about that. We can agonize our lives away
trying to find a budget. I don't care. It's just between us.
I have no money, except to pay my rent and hire a good
graduate research assistant. Nobody is going to believe me
anyway, let alone put up the millions to tell the truth.
Will Derby had unlimited money as one of the richest men in

Great Britain. It didn't matter, he produced his plays, he

enjoyed them in his castle in Cheshire, that's all that
mattered. He didn't try to get them published, not in the
usual way, not to start with, for decades. Half his plays
never saw the light of day as far as we know, anyway;
'Antony and Cleopatra' for instance; until the 1623 Folio of
most of his collected works, minus the poetry. That's an
episode in itself.

WISLAWA
Rich?

GEORGES
Oh yes. Who else has the leisure to sit around writing
impossible verse? Count Tolstoy had all the time and talent
and money in the world, and so did Marcel Proust, Herod the
Great. It also brought evil forces down over their heads,
and his head by the next year, 1594, which is why I mention
1593 as a good starting point for us - right in the middle
of the narrative. Or maybe the central Climax, in Act Three,
as the Bard always did it. Everything changes at the climax,
I've noticed; in the middle of life. We may need Five
Television Acts to do all this, I suspect. Each one a
feature length epic. That's what Homer did - who was a
Trojan by the way, not a Greek. Start the battle of Troy
right in the middle of it, years into it already when 'The
Iliad' opens up. Marvelous technique of course. Political
science at work. '93 was their last good year. 1593 I mean,
mean Elizabeth's last painful years as Queen. Will's father
the 4th Earl was still alive and producing a number of
theatre companies, as well as Will Stanley's infamous older
brother Ferdinando Stanley. The unbearable tragedy to come.
No wonder our boy went underground and stayed there.

WISLAWA

I'm sorry?

GEORGES
To protect the family. They were being murdered. His mother,
a real bitch, was first in line to succeed the Queen, for
one thing.

WISLAWA
Oh. I'm starting to see why this has to be a series. Far too
much for a quick entertainment.

GEORGES
Always was.

WISLAWA
Impossible budget.

GEORGES
Don't even think about it. Will already took care of it. The
plays are everywhere, second only to the Bible in sales. We,
I, only need to know for our own sake. Our own selves.

WISLAWA
No one will believe it?

GEORGES
They haven't for four hundred years. Two thousand in Herod's
case. Four thousand in Egypt, and so on.

WISLAWA (confused, shaking her head)

Herod?

GEORGES
People. Now television - it's like the stars compressed down
into mythological stories. I like that. Compression.
Striking, brief, tight, and quick. Easier than a book.
Accessible. I'm too sick to sit down to a pen and paper
anymore. Sore back too. You still want to do it?

WISLAWA
Fascinating. I don't understand a word of it though. Sort of
like Shakespeare. And we don't really want to try and get it
made? Produced?

GEORGES
Too much bother. Distraction. Like worrying about all the
other candidates for the supreme title, including the Chap
from Stratford-upon-Avon. No. Focus on the Mystery, and
solve it. Detective story. Full of murders and foul
intrigue. Lathom Castle, Lancashire!

CUT:

Wislawa and Georges enter the 'virtual holographic' huge

elizabethan castle, again; and they are in period costumes.

WISLAWA
Wow, again.

GEORGES
Marvelous. You make the movie go-round, as we develop the
facts and exposition. How does that sound?

WISLAWA
Beautiful dress. I love the fashions of --

GEORGES
Virtually, "virtual reality", I believe is the phrase you
kids like? Video games and all that rot.

WISLAWA
So it's, who knows ... an exterior or interior set, day, or
night. Whatever we want? Design, art production, all of
that. And characters?

GEORGES
We'll get to that of course. How dare we presume to know the
Author's true character, and manner of speech and all that,
even though some great movies have been made of historical
characters we don't know anything about, like Mozart in
'Amadeus'. Adapted from the stage production.

WISLAWA

Cleopatra. The Beatles.

GEORGES
Yes. this is Lathom House, in Lancashire, northern England.
Not far from Liverpool of Beatles' fame. Famous rich family
going back centuries, filthy rich with land holdings and
titles, et cetera. They say their estates, their "Court",
were equalled only by Queen Elizabeth's. Wealth derived from
land, real estate, as it usually is all around the world.
Hundreds, probably thousands, of English peasants working
it. It was a perfect environment for a theatrical prodigy, a
dramatic mind. He grew up with plays in the House, including
"mystery plays" of the Catholic church, and of course an
Oxford education, studied law. Can we inject in our scenery
some servants, players, a makeshift stage in the guildhall
or whatever it is called, as you did a minute ago?

WISLAWA
I guess so. I have to admit, I don't like these obscenely

rich types of people.

GEORGES (handing her papers and a book)

Lots of information, dimensions of the Great Hall at Lathom,
harumph harumph.

WISLAWA (with a laptop)

Presto, magisto!

PEOPLE in elizabethan costumes appear everywhere again,

working ,talking, not seeing the two intruders.

GEORGES
By George, I think you've got it! Imagine, what the life of
a great man must have been.

WISLAWA
It's the best we can do, I suppose. They can't see us?

GEORGES
I don't know. I suppose that's up to us.

WISLAWA
Ghosts in 'Harry Potter'?

GEORGES

Perhaps. I'll think about it. For now ... let's be

invisible, science fiction travelers from the future.

WISLAWA
We'll be needing some dialogue from someone, soon. Audiences
need to relate to characters. Strong women too. Comedy.

GEORGES
Dialogue? I wonder what their accents were like? We really
don't know. We do know the 'Old Pronunciations', however,
which are quite a bit different than our modern, overlyreverent pronunciations. Rhyming words in the sonnets that
don't rhyme today, in today's vernacular that is.

WISLAWA
You're taking on an awful lot.

GEORGES
No hurry.

WISLAWA
And what's the central conflict, you know? Necessities of
drama.

GEORGES
Us, and them? The truth betweeen then and now? The truth of
what really happened? What's behind 'The Tempest' and 'A
Midsummer's Night Dream', really? And how much does it
matter? Do we really need to know the man, the creator, and
the mysterious fellow and why, why, the secrecy, really? The

nature of Literature, for that matter.

WISLAWA
Humanity. England. I must confess, Georges, I'm not a big
fan.

GEORGES
Of Shakespeare?

WISLAWA
Too violent. Obscure. And way overdone. Like this castle,
with a moat and walls, for god's sake. And he doesn't really
care much for women. I mean, so what? Some pretty love
poetry, yes, and some fabulous stage and film productions
over the years, yeah. I love great acting too, and the music
is marvelous, and all that.

GEORGES
A big industry.

WISLAWA
I mean, look at this. Okay, people are alive, living, busy,
but ... how is this ... ah, I have to laugh. Here's a
conflict - you and me - fans of Shakespeare and those who
don't like him and his work, for a variety of reasons.

GEORGES
Maybe.

WISLAWA
Sorry, I'm probably speaking out of place. You probably want
a fanatic who knows every sugary phrase and scene, an expert
on all the history and everything.

GEORGES
No.

WISLAWA
It's not my field.

Georges
Nor mine, for that matter. We're quite out of place. Nonpartisans, objective observers, perhaps. That might be
better. It might be of some value.

WISLAWA (on the laptop)

Let's see. Imagine, a set design, on a computer, google
this, facebook that ... ah yes, here we go. Here's
something, Doc.

INTERIOR - A PLAY

ACTORS on the stage again, in grotesque masks, in the large

hall, of LATHOM, with well-dressed audience of a few dozen
laughing at the antics.
Wislawa and Georges are nowhere to be seen - they are gone.

ACTOR
Zounds, thou rump-fed runion!

He beats a CLOWN with a slapstick, and a DOG runs on stage,

further throwing the audience into fits of laughter.
2 boys of 10 and 12 or so, are laughing at it too - WILL,
the younger, and FERDINANDO, his older handsome brother.

WILL
Ferdy, oh, have you ever seen such a thing?

FERDINANDO
Look at that dog, Willy!

Their MOTHER and FATHER are not enjoying it so much,

obviously having a spat - HENRY, 40, the 4th Earl,
magnificently dressed; and LADY MARGARET, 35, unpleasantly
overdressed - Their Names printed over:

GEORGES (voiceover)
William Stanley was born on July 20, 1561, the second son of
Henry Stanley the 4th Earl of Derby who was the great
theatrial impresario, as well as were several of his
ancestors. Theatre men.

WISLAWA (voiceover)
Going way back?

GEORGES (voiceover)
Oh yes. And his older brother Ferdinando, oldest son, heir
to the Title, was 2 years older born in 1559. And then
there's the mother, Lady Margaret.

WISLAWA (voiceover)
What do you mean?

GEORGES (voiceover)
It's hard to say. Their marriage split up around that time,
when the boys were still lads at home. Dad had a mistress of
course.

WISLAWA (voiceover)
Of course.

GEORGES (voiceover)
So Mom moved out.

WISLAWA (voiceover)
Good for her.

GEORGES (voiceover)
I hesitate to put words in their mouths. She was the granddaughter of the daughter of King Henry the Seventh, Mary
Tudor, no less, and therefore, a direct heir to the Throne.

WISLAWA (voiceover)

Of what?

GEORGES (voiceover)
England. Wislawa, Shakespeare's mother, as I believe, was
heiress presumptive to Elizabeth the First of England, from
1578 to Lady Margaret's death in 1596. After his mother's
death, Ferdinado, the oldest son, would have been King. When
he died, before her, though - he was murdered, in 1594,
young William Stanley inherited it all. In direct line to
the Throne.

CUT BACK TO:

Georges' modern study in Cambridge, where they are talking.

WISLAWA
No.

GEORGES
Sort of. Ferdinando's widow and daughters claimed a more
direct ... claim ... to the throne. Much more on that later.
Much later. Not pleasant at all. You see why an old teacher
of political science is interested in this ancient, obsolete
stuff?

WISLAWA
Not to mention the place of obsolete, incoherent literature
in it, and television. It's a whopping good story, Sir, if
nothing else.

GEORGES

I thought so. You see, my Dear, there are very good reasons
on several levels for the mysterious fellow to hide his
identity, and it had, has, nothing to do with the routine
arguments of late, by other advocates of other candidates
for the exalted position of Britain's Bard, and the
paramount champion of the English language as they would
have it as well, to use a pseudonym because, well, you know
how disreputable the performing arts are. Theatre at the
time, probably about as ludicrous as television is today, at
least to pompous academics and others of the keepers of the
pure flame of language and literature, harumph, harumph.
They fail to analyze their contradictions, however. You see,
it has become commonplace to assign one William Shakspur of
the remote burg of Stratford-on-Avon, to the pinnacle of
literary divinity - at least as far as the questionable
english language goes. But, he is not a civilzed professor
of the Arts. He was a common bumpkin by all accounts. So why
should he give a damn if his name was associated with the
sleezy hustlers of the theatrical world? He was one of them,
supposedly, and proud of it. Why must Academia assign him
the title? For the sake of democracy? And others argue for
the Nobility, and against the common working slob? The
ascension of the common man with common public school
education? Why should he care about all that shit? As a
matter of fact, he didn't. Never much claimed to be a
playwright at all, you see. It applies to the carpenter from
Nazareth as well - a good working class peasant, or
proletarian, you see, instead of a wealthy and highly
educated Nobleman, as Messiah, and King of the Jews? An
aristocrat? Unacceptable, in our socialistic milieu.

WISLAWA
You're losing me again.

GEORGES
I apologize. It's become a hopeless morass. We've wandered
away from our story. And I'm sticking to it. You can go

around and around forever in the screaming hysteria of all

the other "candidates" - which we'll have to get into
eventually. Sigh.

WISLAWA
Please. It's enough to contemplate some dialogue with, what
was her name, Lady Margaret? I don't know how to do it.

GEORGES
Mum. Mommy. I think it was key to our boy's nervous
breakdown in the Nineties. The Sonnets show a man
hysterical, crazy maybe even.

WISLAWA
Really?

GEORGES
Read a few of them. The bloody sonnets. Disturbing. Not very
admirable, to me. A complex chap, no doubt about it. I can
understand, in a way, your lack of sympathy for him. We want
our heroes, our geniuses to be admirable, but ... maybe not.
I also suspect, I'm sorry to say, there is a very ugly, even
squalid, biography of the man to uncover - that he, at
least, as well, wanted kept covered up.

WISLAWA
I don't admire a lot of brilliant pop stars or movie stars
either. They are talented, but ... Jesus. What assholes.
Where to now, Doc? What's our next scene?

GEORGES
What do you think?

WISLAWA
It sounds like we'd have our hands full with just this first
two-hour pilot episode, as you've nailed it down, to the
death of his brother and William being named as heir to the
throne; or at the very least the title of Lord Derby. Lord
Strange? I'm guessing. The Climax, indeed, in the 3rd Act,
feature segment, from what I can gather of the mountain of
facts. 1594?

GEORGES
Not only that, his father died too, in '93. Under
questionable circumstances. And the plays are getting
produced all over the place, by now, by then. And another
very significant figure in the ongoing drama also died, was
murdered, earlier in '93, across town, one questionable
player named Christopher Marlowe. And ... Will Derby he got
married, a very significant marriage, at the end of '94 no, the beginning of '95 - , to the daughter of the Earl of
Oxford. It was definitely --

WISLAWA
Wow, whoa, again. That's a couple of episodes. If it's
significant.

GEORGES
Highly. I told you, it's a maxi-series, a big fat two-volume
set of Elizabethan history. Scholars --

WISLAWA

You're talking about at least several semesters of intensive

work, with nothing else to get in the way. Just to organize
the structure.

GEORGES
The devil's in the details. And it must, Wislawa, must, I
emphasize, cover every single tiny little speck of research
everybody has ever done, which is a shitload of stuff.
Civilization for as long as we've known it, from Egypt and
Palestine through the birth of modern western culture.

WISLAWA
Palestine?

GEORGES
The Stanleys of Derby were Catholics, covertly; in a country
where Queen Elizabeth's Daddy the Eighth Henry of the Tudors
of course lopped off heads who didn't agree with his
religious politics. Our Writer was walking a very fine line
indeed.

WISLAWA
And you're relating it to Palestine?

GEORGES
Christianity. Sir Thomas More wouldn't relent on his
devotion to the Pope in Rome, the successor to Caesar, and
lost his head to Henry the Eighth's.

WISLAWA

Not to mention several wives.

GEORGES
Shakespeare was walking that thin tightrope all the time.
Our boy lived until 1642, another significant date of the
period, and usually neglected by the partisans of the other
claimants to the literary throne. That's another episode or
two.

WISLAWA
What?

GEORGES
1642? The Puritans closed all the theatres. Burned the
Stanley's castle at Lathom to the ground - and probably all
his pricelss manuscripts - immediately upon the 6th Earl's
death at the age of 80. Did they know who he really was the sovereign of the hated, liberal, secularist, humanist,
Theatre? Civil war ensued. Cromwell's Puritans lopped off
the king's head, Charles the First, and then William'm
oldest son's head too, in 1649, James Stanley, the 7th Earl
of Derby, for fighting for the King - corrupt as hell of
course in his own right - against the intolerant fucking
christian fundamentalists.

WISLAWA
God.

GEORGES
Yeah. Shakespeare's home destroyed, his son murdered, the
truth buried under heaps of stupidity and tradition.

WISLAWA
Damn. I had no idea.

GEORGES
I think they did, though, at the time. Have an idea of it.
Destroyed it, like the truth of Jesus Christ and what
happened in the first century A.D. Same liars weaseling
their way into power. Same destructive phony religion. You
see, my Dear, it's the same old war between secularist
humanists who hate the obvious corruption of churches or
synagogues, which, to them, proves there is no God, because
men are lying power-mongers in the institutions. Whereas, in
my opinion and analysis of the contradictions, and in Will's
as well, there is definitely a God, and a Soul in men beyond
the physical logic and medical science; an animating force
in the body that goes beyond human democatic description.
There is more than life and death as the end of life,
oblivion, as atheists suggest, because there are men like
William Stanley - "W.S" - and Mozart in the world. Will
didn't write too much about religion -at least not under
that one pseudonym of Shake-speare, and he had at least
another one - , but there were other plays and poems at the
same time that directly attacked these important subjects,
and men were beheaded for it, and burned at the stake.
Women, too, of course. Many "witches". Anne Boleyn. Her
daughter Queen Elizabeth spent her life wreaking vengeance
for the hideous murder of her mother. All that was going on,
Wislawa. Can you imagine sitting in the middle of it. World
war? The invasion of the Spanish Armada and the Spanish
Inquisition? Catholics coming to murder the Protestants and
Jews and Goddess-worshippers in a holocaust, a cataclysm, of
genocide? And being a good Catholic yourself, having to hide
it, in the fury of that storm?

WISLAWA

The Stanleys were Catholics?

GEORGES
Yes. Shakespeare's plays and poems are obliquely Catholic
oriented. So, how to dramatize all that? Catholic Mary queen
of Scots challenging Elizabeth, the Protestant Anglican
daughter of Henry VIII? The religious civil war intrigue was
as bloody and sickening as his plays, you're right. No man
with a brain and a heart at all would want his family
exposed to that constant, incessant, evil threat.

WISLAWA
And still his home was burned and his son beheaded.

GEORGES
But he got out the Work, published in 1623, and a second
Folio edition in 1632 while he was still alive, with
thousands of typos corrected, only by the Author - who had
to still be alive, he, alone of all the candidates to the
Name, still alive - and writing new additions to 'Othello'
and 'Henry the Fifth' in the second edition.

WISLAWA
The whole Show is a lecture, Doc, a Seminar, a graduate
seminar. Not really for HBO or even the BBC. I don't know
where to sell it.

GEORGES
Don't "sell" it anywhere.

WISLAWA
Throw in a lot of edits, with pix, and music, and
dramatizations, I guess. We'll have to.

GEORGES
For now, I just want to get it right. Wherever it goes.
That'll be hard enough.

WISLAWA
Okay. Whip out a first very rough draft. It's a whole new
story, no one is familiar with it.

GEORGES
How about some lunch? My treat.

WISLAWA
Yeah, cut to some contemporary street scenes in Cambridge,
Mass. Make it relevant, accessible.

GEORGES
No, maybe not.

They leave.
FADE OUT

ACT TWO

EXTERIOR - DAY - ON THE ROAD IN GREAT BRITAIN, 1570s

A Traveling TROUPE of PLAYERS, on a muddy old road, in a

remote country setting with no sign of a city; with Wagons,
Horses. Prominent among the more roughly dressed ACTORS are
3 well-dressed men on good mounts -- HENRY, the 4th Earl of
Derby, 45, and his sons FERDINANDO 18, handsome, dashing;
and WILL, 16, also handsome and equally dashing. Their
names, ages, dates, place printed.
They are laughing and singing, while the others listen,
walking along with the wagons - with a few musicians playing
guitars or lutes.

3 STANLEYS
"Threeee ... merry men be we!"

HENRY (jolly, friendly)

That's it lads - Sir Toby Belch and the clowns!

WILL (happy, shouting, exuberant)

Sir Toby Belch!

FERDINANDO
We'll need a pompous ass in the livery. Call him ... oh ...
Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

WILL
Excellent, Ferdy! You play him. I'll be the clown.
Touchstone?

HENRY
That's it, you have it - Sir Toby, Touchstone, and
Aguecheek!

3 STANLEYS
Three merry men be we!

They keep singing and laughing, along with the others, on

the muddy road, on a lovely green day in the luxuriant
countryside.
Their sound goes down, as WISLAWA will come on in voiceover
as the NARRATOR:

NARRATOR
Henry Stanley, the 4th Earl of Derby, kept Players back in

the 1560s and 70s, and his father before that; and they
frequently toured the remote English countryside as, among
other names, "Lord Strange's" men, pronounced 'Strang' or
even 'Straunge', going back in a complicated etymology
obscured by the centuries. More of that, in good time. His
oldest son Ferdinando would become best known as Lord
Strange as he was a brilliant favorite of everyone who knew
him, especially his kid brother William who adored him. By
the age of 16 at least Will probably joined his wonderful
father and brother - who was only two years older than him on the road, sometimes; visiting other castles of the
Nobility to put on comic masques, acrobatics, animal acts,
and occasionally some poetic recitals, probably. All we know
for sure is that the Stanleys were an exuberant Theatre
Family, and that their Acting Troupes continued actively
touring and performing for another 60 years.

The Troupe stil riding on the road.

WILL
Where to next, Dad?

NARRATOR
For want of a better understanding, the dialogue and
dialects will have to be contemporary to our twenty-first
century familiarity. Deepest apologies to our British
cousins.

HENRY
Guildhall, Exeter, 28 September 1577.

FERDINANDO

13 shillings, 4 pence. And then, let's see, Faversham, Kent,

6 s, 8 d. Bath, Somerset, St. Mary's Guildhall Coventry --

WILL
Marvelous. I don't ever want it to end.

FERDINANDO
Who could ask for better - acrobats, dancing dogs, poetry in
the wind.

WILL
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought.

HENRY
Alliteration, boy, alliteration.

WILL
Sorry.

FERDINANDO
Fair land on a fine day. Fair and fine are alliterative too,
Will, somewhat, but less so. Mind the beats of the meter
when on stage, at least.

WILL
Iambics.

FERDINANDO
Yes. Time the steps of the clown to the song and it'll be
funnier. Audiences love it.

HENRY
As I saw the Italian commedia-'dell'arte last year. Oh,
you'll have to see them, best theatre in Europe. Hilarious.
Perfection.

WILL
When do we go?

FERDINANDO
Why ever would I want to leave here? This sceptered Isle, we
have everything. The beats, the measures of the English
language of the bards.

WILL
I know.

HENRY
Ah, but a lad has to go see the world, I understand. I did
too. It's not all in your books, Willy.

WILL
No.

FERDINANDO

But Oxford first, and Gray's Inn. Ah, here's the outskirts
of Exeter. Tally ho! Play, thou musicians, entice the
groundlings to the Guildhall!

The Troupe comes alive and more local travelers come their
way, with a few buildings on the edge of a small town rising
from the wider avenue.

3 STANLEYS (singing)
With a heigh nonny no, and a heigh nonny you, and yea!

PEOPLE
Lord Strange's Players!

NARRATOR
And for want of better information, except for a profound
change that would come years later in his plays, long after
the bloody history chronicles of King Henry VI, a girl,
certainly, was in a boy's life, sixteen years old. Call her
Juliet. Why not?

JULIET, a pretty blonde, 16, watches the Troupe happily in

the crowd ... and catches Will's eye.
He jumps off his horse, like many of the other actors, and
dances with her. She laughs as they spin around and around.
WILL
Oh ho, fair maid, thou'rt a fine dancer, and elf in the
midsummer woods!

JULIET (laughing)
Stop! I'm getting dizzy!

WILL
Come to the play, fair Venus, and behold Adonis and his
honeyed songs!

JULIET
Stop, please.

WILL (he stops)

What beautiful dark eyes. Intelligent. What is your name?

But we can't hear her reply, in the shouts and noise and
excitement as they arrive into the small town, at a
guildhall outdoors, and set up their costumes and props on
the makeshift stage. Ferdinando is collecting coins in
front.
Juliet watches happily in the crowd, as Will joins other
actors and is singing and dancing, and acrobats flip around
with dancing dogs in clown costumes, but we can't hear it -only focusing on Will and Juliet smiling at each other.

Then FERDINANDO walks through the crowd with a guitar

singing a beautiful love ballad, silencing the crowd with
his beautiful voice.

FERDINANDO
Our dear Sovereign's father, Henry the Eighth wrote this
song, and called it 'Greensleeves'. Join me, sing along to
it. You all know it.

He sings Greensleeves and the whole large crowd joins in,

including Juliet and Will.

CROSS FADE, TIME LAPSE:

Later that night, quiet and dim in a moon, WILL and JULIET
are sitting by a pretty riverside, on the grass, alone, with
the town in the background, fairly quiet. Kissing. Gently.

JULIET
Oh, what is your name?

WILL
Will Derby.

JULIET
You have taken advantage of me.

WILL
No. You have taken advantage of me. All I want is a

meaningful relationship, but you, and girls, all you think

about is sex.

JULIET (laughing)
Oh. Such language.

WILL
What, sex? Sex. That's all you think about. But me, I, I --

JULIET
I know about you. I asked the other girls. They say you have
a girl in every town.

WILL
I do not. You're the first girl I've ever kissed.

JULIET
Liar.

WILL
You're the one, when every acting troupe comes into town,
I'll bet you have a dozen boyfriends. A beautiful woman like
you. In fact, that's what I've heard. When the Queen's
Player's come to town, and other troupes of players, and
Lord Hertford's Men and --

JULIET
Shut up and kiss me. You talk too much.

WILL (kissing)
I haven't even met your parents.

JULIET
Let's do it.

WILL
What?

JULIET (she starts taking off her clothes, and his)

Oh.

WILL
Uh ...

They're about half-undressed, laying on the grass, but he

doesn't really know what to do.
JULIET
Oh God, you are ...

WILL (awkwardly, clumsy)

I.. uh ... I can't .. how.. do you. how do I ...

JULIET
Just put it in.

WILL
How do I get it over here ... if .. can you ...

JULIET
What? Oh. What's the matter? Oh my, you are so hard ... and
strong ...

WILL
Yeah, I just can't ... how does it go in? I ... can you ...

JULIET
What?

WILL
Can you hold it open for me? Is this the ... right ...
hole .. or is that ... which ... one is that ... I don't
want to hurt you ... Is this ... that ... another hole,
or ...

JULIET
What? You've never done this before, have you?

WILL
I just don't see how .. which ... where is the ... how do I
get over to it?

JULIET (she starts laughing)

Are you ... this is where you put it.

WILL
Where? Here? No, isn't that ... I don't see, I can't find
it.

JULIET
Now you've gone all .. you can't ... what took you so long?

WILL
Sorry.

JULIET
It's okay.

WILL
I just ... I mean, how do you get it over to it and still
keep it hard so you can find your hole? I couldn't see a
hole? What's so funny? I mean, with all our clothes in the
way, and the grass is cold, aren't you cold? I mean, isn't
your ass ... ? Our legs were getting all tangled up, I
couldn't ... oh okay... keep laughing ... real funny.

JULIET
You can't help it, can you? You are so funny, and sweet.

WILL

Yeah, a regular clown.

JULIET (getting dressed)

No, I think you're sweet. We don't have to do it.

WILL (pulling down her panties)

No wait, stop, don't get dressed.

JULIET (laughing hysterically)

Willy, stop!

WILL
No, please. Oh shit. Give me those panties. I want to take
them home.

JULIET (giggling)
Give me my underwear.

WILL
No. Now see what you did.

JULIET (looking at his underwear)

What? Is that ... ?

WILL
I don't know what it is. Sorry. How embarrassing.

JULIET
Did you ejaculate? Oh. How sweet.

WILL
Sweet? I completely lost control. You lay there all naked
and beautiful and I can't even do anything but embarrass
myself in my own pants. I mean, God. I couldn't ... I mean
it was ... and then ... it just ...

JULIET
I think you're a wonderful boy.

WILL
I am not. You're a wonderful girl though.

JULIET
We'll do it another time.

WILL
Oh yeah. No. A night like this never comes again. It can't.
I mean, look how beautiful that moon is, and the river, and
what do I do - pee in my pants.

JULIET
It's not exactly pee.

WILL
Well it's not --

JULIET
You mean you really don't know what it is? Oh, you still
feel so good and big.

WILL
Stop that. You want to drive me crazy? you're just ... I
mean ... this isn't .. is this romantic? Is this what it is,
what it's supposed to be?

JULIET
Who knows? Who cares? It's not what it's supposed to be.

WILL
So if you're so smart, how is it it's impossible to find the
hole? I mean the right hole? Quite laughing. Jesus. Smarty
pants. There's what, two holes? do you pee out of a
different one? I thought it was way up here.

JULIET
No, it's way down here. I'm sitting on it.

WILL
Sitting on it? So is it just one hole? And the butt-hole I
guess too? I know that's a different one. That's at least
two holes then?

JULIET (laughing)
Stop it, I'll pee my pants!

WILL
Oh this is so romantic, isn't it?

JULIET
I love you!

WILL
What? No way. Love? I don't even ... I can't ... I love you
too, I think.

JULIET
No. I better get home. It's really late.

WILL
Yeah, me too. My parents are probably sitting up worrying.
I've kept the horse out really late. The family horse. I'll
take you home.

JULIET
You were supposed to take me home hours ago. And then
tricked me to come down here by the river.

WILL

I did not. You were the one who seduced me. I was innocent,
I tell you.

JULIET
I've had a wonderful time.

WILL
Me too. Where do you live?

They walk off hand in hand, in the moonlight, back to town.

CUT TO:
INTERIOR - NIGHT
WILL as an old man with white hair and a white beard, barely
recognizable as the teenager boy, at a desk in a dark study.

WILL
The thing is, it's true, as crazy as it sounds - 'First
Love' never leaves you. Juliet left me long ago, but in my
dreams, in my soul, she and I are still young, together,
forever. I don't care what anybody says. It's an actual,
physical fact of the human soul, which is eternal,
goddamnit. At Death we re-live our lives, and that is the
eternity of heaven or hell, depending on how you lived your
life. 'Romeo and Juliet' is completely unrealistic and
unbelievable. But in my heart, oh God. That was the single
greatest night of my life.

CUT BACK TO:

WILL and JULIET still on the grassy, moonlight riverbank,

young and beautiful. She recites a sonnet:

JULIET
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes' new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancel'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I now pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

CUT TO:
INTERIOR - NIGHT - AN INN

The ACTORS and WOMEN are all at a long table in a dingy,

smoky Tavern drinking and eating and laughing and singing.
WILL and JULIET are there, lovers, happy, and so is
FERDINANDO and a pretty LADY with him too, all the best of
friends.

NARRATOR

Lord Strange's Players toured to the Guildhall in Bath

Somerset; Lydd and Canterbury in Kent; Boothall in
Gloucester, and many other locations in those good early
years.

CUT:
WILL studying a dark cold college room, with piles of books
all around him, in Latin and Greek especially.

NARRATOR
William Stanley attended St. John's College, Oxford from
1572 when he was only eleven years old, until approximately
1576, touring with his family's theatre troupe in the
summers and putting on masques at Christmas; and then he was
a member of the prestigious Gray's Inn from '76 to '82,
studying for the 'Bar'.

CUT:
EXTERIOR - NIGHT - ON A RAINY EXETER STREET
WILL gets off a stagecoach and walks up the dark cold street
to a nice house well-lit, on a good avenue. He knocks at the
door, and JULIET opens it. She is dressed casually. They are
both still just 17.
JULIET
Willy!

WILL
Hi.

She hugs him exuberantly, and leads him in the nice well-lit

home. Her FATHER and MOTHER, in their 40s maybe, modestly

but tastefully dressed as prosperous and kindly folks, smile
and welcome him.
FATHER
Well hello William, come on in.

WILL
Thank you Sir. Madam. I hope I'm not intruding?

MOTHER
Oh not at all, we're always glad to see you William. You
look cold and damp, I'll put the kettle on. Take off your
wet things.

WILL
Thank you. It is quite a tempest blowing in to Devon, they
say.

FATHER
Down from Gray's Inn?

WILL
Yes Sir. Term is over for now, so I took a room at the
Boar's Inn here in town.

FATHER
Excellent. We'll fetch some dinner for you.

The parents go off, and Juliet takes the chance to give him
a big hug and kiss.

JULIET
Oh, I'm so glad to see you. I think about you all the time.

WILL
So do I. I hate school.

JULIET
So ... you're staying in town?

They sit comfortably on a big couch in a cosy living room

before a fire. The parents bring back food and drink.
FATHER
I've been wanting to ask you William, if it's okay, if your
studies include subjects other than law?

WILLIAM
Oh yes. Thank you so much, the tea is saving my life. And
the cheese is delicious.

MOTHER
It's nothing. Are you warming up? You look as if you have a
chill, my Boy?

WILL

Oh no, just a damp night. Yes sir, besides Latin and the
Church Missal of course, we study English history which I
find most interesting.

FATHER
That's what I was wondering.

JULIET
Girls are only allowed to attend the local public school.

FATHER
History, you say?

WILL
Yes Sir. It's funny, because I've heard so much of it from
my father, and grandfather and uncles, already, who of
course can trace our ancestry back to the Civil War --

JULIET
Between the Roses, of Lancastrians and York?

WILL
Exactly. Stanleys are Lancashires of course. Tudors. King
Henry VII was the Welsh Catholic, and my great-grandfather.

FATHER
Fascinating.

WILL
I've actually been working on a paper about Henry VI, and
the whole Succession morass. Quite a mess. Not much has been
written about it.

MOTHER
I'm afraid history is not one of my strong points.

WILL
It wasn't that long ago. My mother remembers her grandmother
who was Mary Tudor.

JULIET
Daughter of Henry the Seventh, and sister of Henry the
Eighth.

WILL
Yes.

MOTHER
My goodness. Your mother remembers her?

WILL
As a girl. Our lineage is traced back through my mother,
Lady Margaret Clifford.

MOTHER
Where is she now? Is she still living, William? Oh I'm
sorry, I can see that's an awkward question. None of my
business.

WILL
Oh no, that's all right. My parents separated years ago. I
was just a boy. She lives in London.

FATHER
And your father, in Lancashire?

WILL
Yes.

MOTHER
Well ... Maybe we'll leave the kids alone for a few minutes,
My Dear. If you can help me in the kitchen?

FATHER
Oh ... yes.

The parents exit. And Juliet snuggles up to Will.

JULIET
I thought they'd never leave.

WILL
I like them. You're lucky.

JULIET
I'm sorry to hear about your parents. I didn't know that.

WILL
No reason why you should.

JULIET
Oh, I'm so glad to see you. Will. William. You ... you
know ... I think you could be anything you want. You are so
talented.

WILL
Oh, I don't know.

JULIET
What do you want?

WILL
Oh... I'm interested in the Foreign Service. I might like to
be a diplomat, and travel. We're learning French and German
and Italian of course, along with Latin and Greek. I could
--

JULIET

Oh, I'm so jealous. I'm only allowed to learn some culinary

arts, and sewing and all that nonsense.

WILL
I'm sorry. It's not fair.

JULIET
No it's not. All that girls are good for is to get married.
and you, well, the whole world is wide open for you.
Anything you want.

WILL
I do want to travel. I can't wait to get out of this rainy
dreary country. Maybe we can run off to Rome!

JULIET
Oh, don't tease me. It's enough that mother lets me go off
to Bath or Bristol sometimes and see your plays, and drink
with the fellows!

WILL
Oh they are marvelous, aren't they? I love actors. And to
have you there with me too, that's the greatest.

JULIET
Maybe you should be an actor, like Ferdinand.

WILL

No, my father says one dissolute player in the family is

enough. I have to study law.

JULIET
I don't think you know how good you are.

WILL
What?

JULIET
On stage. You are really good.

WILL
What do you mean?

JULIET
Well, when you aren't being a little reticient, you can --

WILL
Reticient? Me?

JULIET
Well yes. You seem to be holding back, a lot. You can be so
warm and funny in the comic masques, and then your voice, oh
such a beautiful baritone. You're a natural.

WILL
I do love it, Juliet, I confess. I actually love stepping
out on the stage. It seems like home to me, or something. I
feel so good and natural, up there.

JULIET
It shows. And the audiences really love you. You are so
handsome, you are such a valuable man ... Far too good for
me ...

She starts crying suddenly, and sinks into his chest.

WILL
Oh my god, what's the matter? Oh ... my darling ...

But she can't respond and keeps crying, more desperately.

SLOW CROSS-FADE, OUT TO THE STREET
WISLAWA the Narrator is standing outside their house, in the
rain, with an umbrella.
NARRATOR
How can we ever tell the story of what happens to
people,least of all in their hearts? It's melodrama, I know.
The man who became William Shakespeare tried to understand
the human heart, so something of a fictional nature like our
love story probably happened to him, something like this,
whoever he was. I don't think he'd mind that we're trying to
understand. It is a tale he told full of sound and fury, and
silence, and imagination. The facts of Will Derby's life fit
so well with it - the same years as the eruption of the
entire Elizabethan Renaissance, his immersion in the
overwhelming theatrical activities of his rich family, and
his long life well into the next century and two more

Sovereign, Kings James and Charles, describing one of the

greatest publishing feats in history. And thank God for it,
and little Juliet too, his sweetest love.

CUT TO:
Excerpt from the film of 'Romeo and Juliet' by Franco
Zefferrelli, and the song 'What is a Youth: A Rose Will
Bloom'.

SLOW FADE OUT

ACT THREE

INTERIOR - NIGHT - MODERN STUDY

WISLAWA and GEORGES are busy working at the desk with piles
of papers and books all around, dirty dishes and coffee pot,
etc.

GEORGES (reading)
Here's a good one: "The issue at hand is the Elizabethan
acting companies and how to read them. We have been trained
to read playwrights, not acting companies, probably because
playwrights are easier."

WISLAWA (also reading)

"Henslowe's diary documents two periods of daily activity by
Strange's Men: an extended period from 1 February - 22 June
1592, during which they offered 105 performances of 24
different plays at the Rose theatre!"

GEORGES
That's amazing.

WISLAWA
And that's just in London at one theatre. Sometimes a
different play every day!

GEORGES (continues reading)

" ... we should recognize a need to see the drama through to
production, and that means seeing the drama into the hands
of the organizations that copied it, rehearsed it, costumed
and staged it, tried to profit from it, and sold some of it
to the publishers." That's, let's see, professor Scott
McMillin, just a few years ago at a Shakespeare Conference.

WISLAWA (reading)
Philip Henslowe's diary also records a shorter run of 29
performances at the Rose between 29 December 1592 and 1
February 1593. A Show every day, in the winter.

GEORGES
What plays?

WISLAWA
Uh ... 'John of Bordeaux', 'A Knack To Know a Knave', 'The
Battle of Alcazar'. Playwrights unnamed, apparently. Dr.
Manley writes: "In what it tells us about Strange's
repertory, Henslowe's diary in the 1590s in London enables
us to reflect upon the ways in which this ... " Get this
Georges ... "this innovative and politically daring company
addressed itself to the public mood and events of its time."

He's referring to the pyrotechnic special effects they used

- fire on stage, beheaded prisoners, all kinds of difficult
tricks they love in big budget films today. Henslowe was a
theatre owner and businessman.

GEORGES
Yeah. This is where we develop Will Derby's involvement in
the proof of his identity, I think, Wislawa. It was nice you
wanted to put in some human touches with an imaginary
girlfriend, sure, but that won't wash with the orthodox,
skeptical scholars out there.

WISLAWA
I know. But I want to know the man.

GEORGES
There's no proof of a wife, for instance, at all, until
Oxford's daughter Elizabeth and their wedding in January
1595, with the Queen in attendance, no less. I agree with
McMillin: "My vote for the most important advance that could
be made just now in Elizabethan drama studies is for taking
the companies as the organizing units of dramatic
production."

WISLAWA
"In the study of acting companies and their repertories,
Strange's Men must loom large."

GEORGES
And it's a fact - in the 1580s when the Theatre was
exploding into its great years, most of the actors with Lord
Strange's Men also went to work with the Admiral's Men, the

Queen's Men, and by the 90s, Lord Chamberlain's Men at the

Globe Theatre, and then the King's Men when Liz died in 1603
and King James came in. They were basically the same, one,
premier company. The Royal Shakespeare Company, and the
Earls of Derby were the producers.

WISLAWA (reading)
Among others. Quote: "By name an older company that was
reinvigorated by actors taken from other companies in the
late 1580s, and dissolved by the end of 1593, this unusually
large and successful company helped to transform the drama
of its time. In the records associated with Strange's Men
are found the names of the principal actors - George Bryan,
Thomas Pope, Augustine Phillips, William Kemp, John
Heminges, and Richard Burbage - who became partners with
Shakespeare in the newly formed Lord Chamberlain's Men in
1594."

GEORGES
Heminges was one of the two actors who are named as
instrumental in publishing Shakespeare's famous Folio of
1623.

WISLAWA
Heminges was an actor with Ferdinando Strange, who became
Lord Derby when his father died in September of '93.

GEORGE
And Strange's Men became Derby's Men. Richard Burbage was
one of them, along with the famous star Ned Alleyn. Alleyn
is also a very important key, and reference, to establish
our man. Burbage of course originated, played, Hamlet, Lear,
Macbeth, all the famous tragedian roles.

WISLAWA
"Aside from the Lord Admiral's Men, Strange's is the bestdocumented repertory in our single best source of evidence
about repertory companies, the diary of the theatre
impresario Philip Henslowe."

GEORGE
I want those sources and footnotes displayed prominently on
the television screen, too. No reason why TV shouldn't be
buttressed with scholarly proof of its assertions.

WISLAWA
Okay. Andrew Gurr's Cambridge University list, the REED list
of all the early English performances all around the
Country.

GEORGES
And their productions of the acknowledged Shakespearean
Canon, with other acting companies, like Pembroke's Men.
Professor Roslyn Knutson says here: "Pembroke's Men, who
acted in these same years and bore a relationship we do not
yet grasp to Strange's Men."

WISLAWA
An honest admission.

GEORGES
There's a great deal they haven't grasped. 'The First Part
of the Contention', and 'The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of

York', and '2 Henry VI'.

WISLAWA
All Shakespeare's?

GEORGES
Yes. Lord Strange's Men, we know for a fact, first produced
the known plays of Shakespeare.

WISLAWA
One thing I haven't perceived, yet, Georges, is, where does
the name come from? If it's a pseudonym.

GEORGES
Not the Stratford chap. I think, look ... here's the only
authentic portrait of Ferdinando, probably in the 80s. I
believe it's verified.

They look at a picture in a big volume.

WISLAWA
Project it on the screen. Large.

GEORGES
What do you see old Ferdy proudly holding in his arm?

WISLAWA

A spear.

GEORGES
Clearly. It's not a sword or anything else?

WISLAWA
No.

GEORGES
It's so large and long it is not completely included in the
painting.

WISLAWA
Yes. Certainly a spear. For jousting maybe, that sort of
thing?

GEORGES
It was great sport back then. Noblemen were often athletes,
sportsmen.

WISLAWA
Spear-carriers. So you think this is the origin of the name?
A nickname, or stage name or something? Personal endearment?

GEORGES
Shakers and Movers. It's one concrete, hard fact, just about
the only portrait I could find, or reference of anything or
anyone else for that matter, that proves a connection to a

"Spear". And it appears in a very prominent theatrical

person's official portrait. The name, as a writer, first
appeared in print in the Spring of 1593, on the dedication
of his poem 'Venus and Adonis', to the patron the Earl of
Southampton. The very first time the name of 'William
Shakespeare' appeared in the pages of history. Now, the chap
from Stratford, of course is linked to it with his name
resembling Shakespeare, but it was almost always spelled
much differently and probably even pronounced differently Shakspur, Shaxpere. Amazing inconsistencies. I don't think
he knew anything about it, all this fuss, Wislawa. He was a
businessman, yes, a wool and barley merchant as recorded in
the very brief facts, and went on business to London and
invested in a few of the theatre companies. Rather like a
banker or venture capital entrepreneur from Cincinnati who
goes to New York and sees a few Broadway plays, and buys a
few shares from stockbrokers, and revels in the glamor maybe
of meeting a beautiful star at Sardi's Restaurant. C'mon.
That's all he was. That's the facts as we have them. His
investments paid off well and he became a prosperous
merchant back home in the Sticks of Stratford, far, far away
from the creative people on Broadway.

WISLAWA
That's it?

GEORGES
Essentially. The name, yes. But at his death in 1616,
nothing. Not an obituary in Variety or anywhere else. Nobody
noticed, including in his hometown, or a word from any of
his family. For a century. Zilch. Zero. The greatest and
most successful writer of all time?

WISLAWA
Just the name and ghastly portrait on the 1623 Folio?

GEORGES
Yes. The portrait could be anybody. But we'll get into the
Folio and Ben Jonson's whole assertion later.

WISLAWA
Ben Jonson?

GEORGES
Another prominent playwright and hustler of the time, who
certainly knew the true identity. Well, maybe, he knew. But
there is ample evidence of Derby's direct connection to the
Folio, and the Aristocrats who paid for the extravagantly
expensive volume - relatives of Derby's - and that's the
second of the two greatest areas of evidence, of proof, of
Will Derby, along with his consistent involvement with all
these acting companies and their repertoires.

WISLAWA
Who were producing the famous plays by then? And young
William, where was he by then, all this time?

GEORGES
You left him off at Gray's Inn, when he completed his
studies for the Bar in 1582. He finally got his father's
permission to go abroad - to France. 21 years old, highly
educated, rich, and charming. And there, in the next few
years, some spectacular stories started to come out of
Europe, and they were written about in popular tales and
travelogues in 1801, and well-known, in Europe anyway,
throughout the early 1800s. Books with titles like 'Sir
William Stanley's Garland', first printed in 1800, and 'A

Brief Account of the Travels of the Celebrated Sir William

Stanley', 1801.

WISLAWA
Really?

GEORGES
So you see, my Dear, he was not as unknown or unremarked as
our shakespearean scholars today would have us believe.

WISLAWA
"The celebrated William Stanley"? Good lord. W.S. And all
these travels - let me guess: were to Italy and many of the
countries written about in the plays?

GEORGE
Yes indeed. Including North Africa and the Middle East. A
great deal of religious content and intent in them. It's
very exciting - romantic, tragic, eloquent, dangerous. An
extraordinary man, by every account. And he could write like
a sonuvabitch!

WISLAWA
You're such a tease. And back in merry olde Englande?

GEORGES
Daddy and Big Bro were busy producing the Show Biz aspects,
and probably doing some writing themselves, at enormous
expense to the family fortunes. Junior was probably
scribbling by then too, sending home plays about clowns and

fools in Italy - inspired by the Commedia - , kings and

queens in France, doctors of philosophy in Germany, you name
it. Somewhere along in there, he started writing. Somebody
started writing, anyway.

WISLAWA
Conjecture? Early, and on into the mid-80s? You talk about
me, imagining fictional scenarios.

GEORGES
Something big was happening, my Dear. Somebody was starting
to write up a storm. And herein I should explain there were
other, questionable names of other writers starting to come
in with texts, and who, who, was really behind all those
anonymous playscripts. The mystery deepens and widens now.
Hang on to your shorts. The fun is only just beginning.

TAG

CUT TO:
EXTERIOR - DAY - ITALY

WILL is 21 and dressed colorfully as a Commedia clown,

dancing and singing with a dozen other ITALIAN ACTORS and
Musicians in a picturesque village, cheered by laughing
audiences in the road, working their way up to a STAGE in
the back of a big Wagon, decorated with banners and colors
and happy things.
SLOW FADE OUT