There is an older guy shown during the film in what I can best describe
as a "Flying Nun" costume. At first he seems like he is against the play/players
but he is in the audience at the end of Romeo and Juliet and seems to have been
won over.
Who was he and what was his significance? What was his beef early on?
His name, according to the cast list, is Makepeace; he's a Puritan preacher and as such disapproves of playhouses and players as being worldly and sinful. He gets swept into the theatre against his will by the crowds of citizens flocking in; and as you say, he is won over by the play. A happy touch.
His ranting gives Will one of his best lines - A plague on both your houses!
Thanx again for your thoughtful reply.
I had not noticed that he got "swept" in to the play by the crowd!
Of course there were a lot of examples of Shakespeare "dialog"
turning up in the conversations:
Philip Henslowe: The show must...., you know....
Shakespeare: Go on!
Indeed. All part of the fun.
Yes indeed!
But oops--just looked around and the line "the show must go on"
may not have originated from Shakespeare---I just assumed it did
from its sly placement in the film!
But the film did use "a rose by any other name" etc.!
and a few others!
There's also jokes about dodgy theatre practices, actors' vanity, Stratford tourism, London taxi drivers, psychoanalysis, Jacobean revenge tragedy and Harold Pinter, to name just those that spring to mind immediately.
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