By Any Other Name

Andre does not return home, so Melina is forced to attend rehearsal with their fight still unresolved. At the theatre, she and Jasper talk about Emilia’s book of poetry, but she receives several phone calls from her father’s number. When she answers, Beth tells her that Melina’s father has had a heart attack. Jasper offers to drive her to Connecticut.

At the hospital, she meets Beth, who seems to love her father deeply. Her father survives the surgery, and she is allowed to see him while he sleeps. She wishes that she had spent more time with him and realizes how much she loves him. When he awakens, the two promise to spend more time together. He tells her about Beth, and she says that she is glad he is happy again.

Melina returns in time to see the end of the dress rehearsal. She is furious when she realizes that Andre has changed the ending. Instead of saying that a writer’s words outlive their name, Emilia says that both matter: “Why must it be one or the other? Why not both?” (305). She and Andre continue their fight after rehearsal, and he tells her that he quits.

Jasper finds Melina crying and takes her home. She confesses the truth to him: She is Mel Green, and she wrote the play. She also reminds him about what happened at Bard. He tells her that he can’t imagine not recognizing her, and the two kiss. They make love, and Jasper in turn confesses that he is neurodivergent and struggles to read social cues.

The next morning, Jasper offers to write a column explaining who Mel Green is and talking about gender bias in theatre. He thinks that this will force Tyce and Raffe’s hand and that the play will continue.

In the script of By Any Other Name, Alphonso beats Emilia and accuses her of having an affair with Shakespeare.

Emilia is in the gardens with Henry, Bess, and Southampton. He quietly tells her that Hunsdon has died, and she is grieved. She thinks of all the kindness he showed her. She also worries about her doomed love for Southampton. When they return home that evening, Alphonso is waiting. Once again, the household lives in terror of his moods.

Emilia tells Southampton she cannot meet him because of the danger, but she continues to meet Shakespeare because she needs the money. She writes and sells The Merchant of Venice. Eventually, she meets with Southampton who tells her he will give her and Henry a house. She tells him it is impossible, and he agrees that her marriage cannot be undone, but he still loves her.

When she returns home, Alphonso confronts her. She has been lying and saying that she was giving lute lessons, but she did not have an instrument with her. He has found letters from Shakespeare, pretending to be a glover, and assumes he is her lover. He beats her, causing her to lose a pregnancy, and tells her that if he thinks she has been unfaithful again, he will kill Henry. Reluctantly, she writes Southampton, telling him, “[A] sad tale’s best for winter” (365), and that she cannot see him again.

Emilia becomes deeply depressed, only going through the motions of her life. Alphonso leaves again to go on an expedition, and Alma asks Emilia what she wants and what would make her happy. She decides that she wants another child. She visits an astrologer, Simon Forman, who helped Alma’s relative conceive. However, Emilia finds him a disappointment. He criticizes her for being a wealthy man’s mistress and tries to proposition her for sex. She throws him out of her home and decides to take matters into her own hands.

When Alphonso returns, she greets him sweetly and, while he is bathing and vulnerable, holds a knife to his genitals. She tells him that if he ever touches her or Henry, she will kill him. She begins sleeping in Henry’s room, and Alphonso leaves her alone. One night, she drugs her husband and has sex with him, hoping to conceive a daughter.

In 1598, a pregnant Emilia is walking to market when she sees Southampton. He leads her to an alleyway and explains that he came to see her, to tell her that he is married. He took her advice and tried to live as if they could never be together. He was seeing one of the queen’s ladies, Elizabeth, who became pregnant, so they married without royal permission. Knowing that the queen will be angry, he is leaving for France. He tries to return her portrait, but she tells him to keep it.

In December, Emilia gives birth to a daughter, Odyllia, who only lives a few days. In mourning, she begins to write a sonnet. Only knowing that Henry needs her keeps her alive. One day, Shakespeare finds her and asks her for a new play. In turn, knowing his son Hamnet died, she asks him if the grief ever abates. He tells her it doesn’t and asks her to write a play about grief. She composes Hamlet, paying tribute to both their children with the names Hamlet and Ophelia, and gives it to him.

Time passes. Southampton is arrested in Essex’s plot against the queen but is freed when she dies. Emilia writes Othello and Measure for Measure. One night, she awakens to see the supernova Tycho Brahe told her about long ago.

The morning after, Melina awakens in Jasper’s apartment. They share breakfast and talk about their childhoods, and she takes a shower. She is simultaneously afraid that she has blown her entire life up and elated at being with Jasper. He tells her that the paper will publish his column on By Any Other Name, and then they will talk to Raffe and Tyce. In the meantime, he wants to show her something.

He takes her to the library, where they can view Shakespeare’s First Folio. As they look at it, Melina explains the clues that scholars believe lead to a confession that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays. For example, he has no right—write— arm in the picture. Jasper asks her if she thinks Emilia wrote all the plays, and she says no. She thinks that Oxford, Jonson, and others were part of a stable of writers who wrote them under Shakespeare’s name. After they leave, she kisses him and tells him she’s never had a suitor seduce her with a historical text before.

Back at Jasper’s apartment, the stage manager texts them saying that one of the actors has tested positive for Covid and that the production will be on hold. Melina is relieved at the delay and plans to go back and patch things up with Andre. Jasper heads into the Times office to meet with his editor.

On his train, Jasper gets a series of texts from his editor saying that he wants to talk about the column and asking if it’s ready to go. Jasper texts back that he should publish it, but when the train arrives, he realizes that several texts are missing from the conversation. His editor has rewritten the column to make Melina a villain, a white woman who used a Black man to publish her work. When he arrives at the office, he asks the editors to take it down, but they refuse since it is already attracting attention.

In the subway station, Melina reads the column and feels numb. She is shocked at Jasper’s betrayal, but also reluctantly recognizes that there is some truth in his column. She feels guilty for worrying about her advancement over Andre’s. At the apartment, she apologizes to Andre and the two reconcile.

Jasper is desperate to win Melina back. She is not answering his calls, so he meets with Tyce instead and tries to convince him to produce the play. Tyce declines but says he could produce something by Andre instead. Jasper hopes that Melina will see it as a peace offering.

Months pass. Melina gets a babysitting job. Andre persuades her to meet with some producers, but they turn out to be making a show about “reverse racism.” Melina walks away, uninterested in talking about her cancellation.

Andre tells her that Tyce wants to read his play and asks if she would hate him. She tells him to go for it, and he explains that he met with Tyce and Jasper, who want to speak with her. Jasper appears, and she realizes that Andre set up a meeting between the two of them. Jasper tries to apologize, but Melina tells him that she doesn’t want to see him again. He leaves and as she cries, Andre helps her block Jasper’s number.