Opening Context
By Any Other Name unfolds across two eras—Elizabethan England and contemporary New York theater—tracing how creative ambition, love, and power collide when a woman dares to claim authorship. The cast spans patrons and gatekeepers, allies and lovers, and, above all, artists who risk everything to be heard. Their intertwined journeys reveal how the struggle for recognition persists even as the stages and costumes change.
Main Characters
Melina Green
Melina Green is a gifted yet guarded New York playwright whose technical brilliance has long masked her fear of vulnerability. After a scathing review from the formidable critic Jasper Tolle and years of internalized doubt—much of it seeded by an exploitative mentor, Professor Bufort—she finds renewed purpose by writing a play inspired by her Elizabethan ancestor. Convinced the industry won’t embrace her voice, she persuades her best friend Andre to pose as the author, a choice that tests their friendship and forces her to confront the cost of erasing herself. As the deception unravels, Melina reclaims her work, reevaluates her biases, and opens herself to love, stepping into the spotlight as the true author of her story.
Emilia Bassano Lanier
Emilia Bassano Lanier is a brilliant poet, musician, and clandestine playwright whose genius blooms within the perilous confines of Elizabethan court life. Protected—and constrained—by Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, she learns the theater’s inner workings even as she pays the price of patronage; with Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, she finds a love that is profound but untenable. Her closest confidant, Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, champions her talent and helps broker a pragmatic pact with William Shakespeare, who becomes the public face of her plays. Forced into marriage with Alphonso Lanier, Emilia endures abuse yet persists in writing, ultimately becoming the first woman in England to publish a book of poetry under her own name—her quiet revolution echoing forward to inspire Melina.
Jasper Tolle
Jasper Tolle is a razor-sharp New York Times critic whose uncompromising standards and social awkwardness make him seem icy—until his devotion to artistic truth reveals a more vulnerable core. He begins as the voice that crushes Melina’s confidence, later becomes the fiercest champion of her “anonymous” masterpiece, and finally, through painstaking honesty, her partner in both art and love. As he collaborates with Melina (who initially hides behind an assistant’s guise), Jasper confronts his own biases about authorship and gender, learning to use his platform not as a gate but as a bridge. His arc reframes criticism as an act of care: a demand for truth that, once unshackled from prejudice, can help change an industry.
Supporting Characters
Andre
Melina’s best friend and roommate, Andre is her fiercest advocate and a steadying moral compass. A gay Black playwright who’s internalized the industry’s bias, he submits Melina’s script under his name and briefly becomes the “male front,” a choice that spotlights both his loyalty and his own fears about visibility. Their friendship weathers the fallout, ultimately emboldening him to claim his voice.
Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon
The Lord Chamberlain and de facto arbiter of Elizabethan theater, Hunsdon is Emilia’s powerful protector and keeper of her gilded cage. He educates and indulges her intellect yet cannot fully see her as an equal, arranging her marriage to avoid scandal when protection would most matter. His affection underscores how patronage both enables and constrains a woman’s genius.
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton
Southampton is Emilia’s great love—passionate, idealistic, and bound by duty. Their affair, impossible in the world that shapes them, becomes the emotional wellspring for her romantic writing and the template for star-crossed lovers. He embodies desire thwarted by rank, a muse she must ultimately survive without.
Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe
Playwright, spy, and Emilia’s irreverent soulmate, Marlowe treats her as an equal in talent. He urges her onto the stage (from the shadows) and helps navigate the dangerous bargain that keeps her work alive while erasing her name. His death is a seismic loss, leaving Emilia without her truest ally.
William Shakespeare
A clever striver with a keen eye for opportunity, Shakespeare agrees to be the public author of Emilia’s plays. Neither outright villain nor secret genius, he rides the current of her talent to build a legend and eventually believes his own mythology. He personifies how fame often follows the figure with access and audacity, not necessarily authorship.
Alphonso Lanier
Emilia’s cousin-turned-husband, Alphonso is petty, jealous, and violent, a portrait of a system that renders wives property. His abuse forces Emilia to protect herself and her child and sharpens the stakes of her clandestine writing. He is the intimate antagonist against whom her resilience hardens.
Professor Bufort
Melina’s early mentor becomes her first censor: a gatekeeper who demands “blood on the page” while exploiting his power. His retaliation when she exposes him nearly derails her career, teaching her that “feedback” can be a weapon as easily as a guide. He is the modern echo of the patriarchal forces Emilia faced.
Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent
Emilia’s guardian supplies a rare classical education and models female intellect within noble constraints. Her departure marks the end of Emilia’s sheltered youth and the beginning of courtly peril. She plants the conviction that learning is both armor and lantern.
Isabella
A seasoned courtesan who tutors Emilia in survival, Isabella reframes the role as strategic autonomy compared to the legal bondage of marriage. Pragmatic yet protective, she equips Emilia to navigate desire, power, and self-possession. Her mentorship complicates easy judgments about “freedom.”
Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
A poet-patron who hosts a vibrant salon, Mary Sidney is what Emilia might have become with rank: celebrated but unable to risk the stage. Her closet dramas and circle of writers affirm that women can create, even if they must do so invisibly. She becomes a lodestar of possibility and constraint.
Minor Characters
- Peregrine Bertie, Baron Willoughby: Susan Bertie’s brother, he oversees Emilia’s voyage to Denmark, a journey that seeds the atmosphere and intrigue later echoed in Hamlet.
- Jeronimo Bassano: Emilia’s cousin who arranges her liaison with Hunsdon, sacrificing her future to secure the family’s fortunes.
- Queen Sophie of Denmark: A compassionate monarch who demystifies menstruation for Emilia, reframing it as a source of power rather than shame.
- Tycho Brahe: The famed Danish astronomer whose shifting-heavens model inspires Emilia to imagine a new order for art and power.
- Felix Dubonnet: A sexist festival director whose bias prompts Andre to submit Melina’s play under a male name.
- Tyce D'Onofrio: A savvy producer drawn to the script’s marketable optics—“a Black male playwright” with Jasper’s backing—exposing the industry’s transactional calculus.
- Henry Lanier: Emilia’s beloved son of uncertain paternity, the anchor of her later choices and a reason to endure.
- Bess: Emilia’s steadfast maid and confidante, who quietly sustains her through marriage and danger.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
The novel’s twin timelines mirror each other, pairing a silenced genius in the past with a self-silencing artist in the present. Emilia’s pact with Shakespeare and reliance on Hunsdon’s protection map onto Melina’s decision to hide behind Andre’s name and her early deference to Jasper’s authority. Where Emilia must navigate marriage to Alphonso and the perils of court, Melina confronts predatory mentorship and critical gatekeeping; in both worlds, the price of being heard is negotiated with men who control access.
Alliances form along lines of belief: Marlowe and Andre recognize the women’s talent and act as true allies, urging them toward risk and visibility. Jasper begins as an adversary—an embodiment of the establishment—yet evolves into a partner who uses his platform to dismantle the very biases he once enforced. Hunsdon’s protection and Southampton’s love, like Jasper’s advocacy, are real yet limited by rank, reputation, and the stories men tell about themselves.
Two factions emerge across eras. Among the allies stand those who nurture the work: Marlowe, Andre, and—eventually—Jasper. Arrayed as obstacles are the gatekeepers and abusers—Bufort, Alphonso, and the opportunistic face of Shakespeare—whose power can erase or recast authorship. Between them, the protagonists learn that legitimacy cannot be granted; it must be claimed, even if doing so means exposing the lie that made success possible.