The 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love" is a romantic comedy about a fictional love affair between the English playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), the young daughter of a merchant. The film is set in 1593 during the reign of England's Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench) who appears as a character in the film. She was about 60 years old then and on the throne for 35 years. William is working on the play that will become Romeo and Juliet, the theater owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is having financial problems, and Viola de Lesseps is about to be forcibly married to a nobleman, Lord Wessex (Colin Firth). Viola meets William and they begin a secret love affair. She would like to be an actress but in those days only men could legally appear on the stage. She disguises herself as a man, Thomas Kent, and gets the part of Romeo.

The queen attends plays and has an official, the Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney to ensure that plays are not obscene and that women do not appear as actors.

Philip Henslowe owns the Rose Theatre but has financial problems and needs a "hit." At a pub William pays for drinks with a coin.

The coin is a prop coin and appears to be gold colored due to the lighting. A gold coin would have bought a lot of drinks then. Viola tries her first disguise as a boy to audition for the play.

She is immediately exposed as a girl and runs off followed by William who leaves a note for her.

This time she gets the part of Romeo but William has seen through her disguise and they sometimes make love. John Webster is a boy who hangs around the theater.

Edmund Tilney, the Master of the Revels, is looking to embarass Philip and pays John to watch.

The prop coin looks somewhat like an Elizabethan gold coin, a Sovereign or an Angel.

John tells Edmund that the actor Thomas Kent is a girl. Viola's man wig falls off and she is revealed.

Tilney closes the theater due to the woman actor. Another theater manager offers his theater and the play, now Romeo and Juliet, is started with William as Romeo. The boy playing Juliet is unable to work and Viola takes over the role. Near the end of the play Juliet takes a sleeping potion and Romeo, believing that she is dead, offers an apothecary 40 (Venetian) ducats for a poison for himself.

Romeo takes the poison and dies, then Juliet wakes up, sees Romeo dead, and stabs herself.

A Venice ducat from the period:

Gold, 20 mm, 3.50 gm, 0.986, no date, corrosion spots from copper or silver deposits
Obverse:
St. Mark on the left standing facing right, presenting long scepter to kneeling Doge
DVX between them
SM VENET PASC CICON (Sacra Moneta Venetiae, Pascali Ciconia)
English: "Sacred Money of Venice, Pasquale Cicogna"
Reverse:
Christ standing facing, holding Gospels in left hand and raising right hand in benediction,
within pointed oval figure containing 17 stars.
SIT T XPE DAT QTV REGIS ISTE DVCAT (Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, iste ducatus)
English: "O Christ, let this duchy, which you rule, be dedicated to you"

The Venetian gold ducat was a world-wide trade coin struck in Venice from 1284 to 1797. The ducat was also known as the zecchino which was corrupted to "sequin."

Back to the film:

Tilney tries again to close the new theater.

Queen Elizabeth was a spectator and she emerges.

The queen asks William to write a comedy for the "Twelfth Night" religious holiday. Viola and Lord Wessex leave for America where Wessex plans to go into the tobacco business. William starts writing his new play with Viola as a woman who survives a shipwreck. He imagines Viola arriving in the new world.

Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare
Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps
Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth
Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe
Colin Firth as Lord Wessex
Simon Callow as Edmund Tilney
Director: John Madden
Writers: Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard