Characters By Any Other Name Jodi Picoult

Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton

Overview

Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, is the forbidden love of Emilia Bassano and the unacknowledged father of her son. In By Any Other Name, Jodi Picoult imagines him as the “fair youth” of Shakespeare’s sonnets—the inspiration behind Venus and Adonis and the romantic leads of the plays. A wealthy patron of the arts trapped in an arranged political marriage, Southampton chooses passion over duty, launching a secret, decade‑spanning affair that fuels Emilia’s writing even as it condemns their relationship to invisibility. His story traces an arc from reckless young courtier to a man whose legacy is preserved not in official records but in the verse of the woman who loved him.

Role in the Plot

Southampton enters the narrative at the Wilton House salon, where he and Emilia share an impulsive kiss that reshapes both their lives. He immediately becomes her secret lover, her confidant, and the recipient of the erotic poem Venus and Adonis. Later, when Emilia is cast out by Lord Hunsdon and forced into a miserable marriage with Alphonso Lanier, Southampton remains her emotional anchor. He accepts the child she bears as “my son,” meets her in Paris Garden, and offers to kill her abusive husband—a dark but defining moment of devotion. After his death from fever in the Netherlands, Emilia makes a pilgrimage to his tomb in Titchfield, where she recites lines that will become part of Romeo and Juliet’s final act. His son, the fourth Earl, later visits Emilia, bringing a haunting closure to a love that could never be public.

Motivations and Character Traits

Southampton is driven by a romantic idealism that chafes against Elizabethan hierarchy. He is wealthy, titled, and expected to marry Elizabeth Vere for political gain, yet he repeatedly declares his love for Emilia and insists, “I will find a way.” His actions reveal a blend of tenderness and fierce protectiveness: he frames Emilia’s face as if she were art, whispers that she is all that heals him, and threatens to eliminate Alphonso when he sees the bruises around her throat. At the same time, he is naive—believing that love alone can overcome the rigid class and gender barriers of the court. This tension between hope and reality defines him. He also displays a genuine interest in art and poetry, supporting both Shakespeare and Emilia’s hidden work, though he never learns the full extent of her authorship.

Chronological Arc

1590 – The Wilton Kiss: Meeting Emilia at Mary Sidney Herbert’s estate, the nineteen‑year‑old Earl kisses her impulsively and then is taught “how a kiss should be.” The encounter sparks an affair that will last years even as he returns to Cambridge.

1591–1592 – Secret Meetings and the Orangery: In stolen moments at court and at Somerset House, the lovers grow closer. During a storm, they consummate their relationship in the orangery, only for Hunsdon to nearly discover them. In that charged instant, Emilia performs her role as mistress while Southampton escapes, witnessing her dual life for the first time. This episode cements her decision to dedicate Venus and Adonis to him, channeling their impossible love into poetry.

1592–1594 – Fatherhood and Separation: After Emilia’s pregnancy by Southampton (or so he believes), she is dismissed by Hunsdon and married to Alphonso. Southampton remains distant until she is safely delivered of a son, Henry. When they reunite at the Paris Garden stairs, he asks about “my son,” signaling his emotional claim even though he cannot acknowledge paternity.

1594 – Defiance and Protection: Learning of Alphonso’s abuse, Southampton takes the battered Emilia to his hunting lodge, pens a letter refusing the Oxford marriage, and vows to seek a legal way to protect her within the confines of wedlock. Their happiness during Alphonso’s military absence allows Emilia to write Romeo and Juliet, the play that mirrors their star‑crossed condition.

1596–1604 – A Father Figure Without a Name: In the Paris Garden, Southampton plays with young Henry, telling stories and standing in as “Mama’s good friend.” Emilia forbids him from acknowledging the boy openly, but the familial bond is unmistakable. Later, Southampton marries elsewhere and fathers legitimate heirs, yet his connection with Emilia remains a silent thread.

1610s – Death in the Netherlands: Commanding volunteers in the fight against Spain, Southampton loses his son Lord Wriothesley to fever and then succumbs himself. Their bodies are returned to Titchfield. Emilia learns of the deaths through market gossip and makes a harrowing winter journey to his tomb, where she sleeps beside the marble monument, drifting off “one final time.”

Aftermath – The Fourth Earl’s Visit: Some years later, a boy of sixteen arrives at Emilia’s door and announces, “I am Southampton.” She is stunned until he explains he is the fourth Earl, who takes after his mother. The meeting closes the loop, offering a glimpse of the family that might have been and underscoring the permanence of her loss.

Key Relationships

Emilia Bassano

The central bond of the novel, their love is a combination of raw desire and intellectual kinship. Emilia sees in Southampton a partner who values her mind, not just her body. He becomes the silent addressee of her most personal work, and she immortalizes him in the sonnets that promise, “Your monument shall be my gentle verse.”

Her Son Henry

Though Henry legally bears Alphonso’s surname, Southampton treats him as his own. He kneels beside the boy in the garden, answers his questions with tenderness, and even shapes the faerie tale that Emilia will transform into A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This hidden fatherhood illustrates the cost of their secrecy: love is real but must remain invisible.

Lord Burghley and Court Politics

As Burghley’s ward, Southampton is a chess piece in marriage negotiations. His refusal to marry Elizabeth Vere is an act of rebellion that severs him from the power broker who controls his future. This political pressure highlights the commodification of women and young heirs alike, where desire is sacrificed to alliance.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  • Pursuing Emilia despite the enormous risk sets in motion a chain of events that results in her pregnancy, her dismissal, and the necessity of fronting her plays under William Shakespeare’s name. The entire literary subterfuge is born from this love.
  • Refusing the arranged marriage to Elizabeth Vere cuts Southampton off from Burghley’s favor but frees him emotionally. It also guarantees that any future with Emilia can only exist in the shadows.
  • Offering to murder Alphonso reveals the depth of his loyalty, but Emilia’s refusal—because “if you were capable of murder, you would not be the man I love”—reaffirms their moral boundary. The decision to seek legal recourse instead shows growth, though the era offers no real remedy.
  • Leaving for the Netherlands seems a noble venture, but it costs him his life and any chance to provide for Emilia or publicly recognize his son. His death turns their romance into a permanent elegy, intensifying the novel’s theme of female erasure and pseudonymous authorship.

Thematic and Symbolic Connections

Southampton embodies the tension between art as resistance and legacy and the brutal constraints of gender bias in the arts. Because Emilia cannot sign her name, she pours her passion into works that carry his—yet the dedications are attributed to a man. The miniature of the “unknown man” described in the Author’s Note, with its black background and the six of hearts playing card symbolizing doomed love, serves as a visual emblem of their affair. In the sonnets, the speaker promises to build a monument of words that will outlast physical tombs. When Emilia stands before Southampton’s marble sepulchre, she fulfills that vow: he will live on in the mouths of men, even if she herself must die to the world.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

  1. How does Emilia first meet Southampton, and what draws them together? At a Wilton House salon, the teenage Earl steals a kiss. Emilia corrects him, teaching that a kiss should be a “dialogue,” and they are drawn by mutual recognition—both are trapped by obligations they did not choose.

  2. Does Southampton know he has a child with Emilia? Yes. After she gives birth to Henry, Southampton asks to meet “my son” and later, in Paris Garden, acts as a father figure, though they never tell the boy the truth.

  3. What role does Southampton play in Emilia’s writing career? He is her muse. The dedication of Venus and Adonis, the ecstasy and despair of Romeo and Juliet, and the sonnets all flow from their relationship. He also, unwittingly, creates the need for the Shakespearean front, because a woman cannot publish such sensual work under her own name.

  4. How does Southampton react to Emilia’s abusive marriage? He brings her to his hunting lodge after Alphonso beats her, tends her wounds, threatens to kill her husband, and writes a letter definitively refusing the Oxford marriage. When Emilia forbids murder, he promises to find a legal escape.

  5. What is the significance of Southampton’s tomb scene? Emilia’s solitary pilgrimage to Titchfield mirrors Juliet’s tomb. She recites Romeo’s lines, sleeps beside the monument, and finally says goodbye. The moment seals their love as the blueprint for the tragedy that defines an era—and proves that art can preserve what life cannot.