Henslowe. What! a woman play on the stage?

Mary.    Ay, when the men fail! Quick! I say I’ll do it!

Shakespeare [entering]. Here still? You’ve heard?

Mary [on the threshold]. And heeded. Never stop me! You shall have Juliet. You shall have your play.

She and Henslowe hurry out.

Marlowe.   There goes a man’s master! But does she know the part?

Shakespeare. She knows each line, she knows each word, she breathed them Into my heart long ere I wrote them down.

Marlowe.   But to act! Can you trust her?

Shakespeare. She? Go and watch! I need not.

Marlowe.   But is it in her? She’s Julia not Juliet, not your young Juliet, not your June morning—or is she?