- Shakespeare is writing, but he isn't working on a play, he's practicing writing his own name.
- Henslowe arrives and pleads for Shakespeare's new play.
- Shakespeare starts quoting verse to him instead of answering. A man quoting himself is never attractive.
- He says he needs to find his muse before he can finish it.
- Henslowe tells him that the whole theatre is in jeopardy (not the Alex Trebek kind), if Shakespeare won't finish his play.
- But Shakespeare doesn't want to write a comedy, which is what audiences want.
- Will asks Henslowe for a fifty-dollar loan, which he needs to join the Chamberlain's Men, which is a theatre company.
- Henslowe doesn't have the money to give Will.
- As they walk through the streets, they hear a street preacher denouncing the theatre to the public.