Alice Woodprotagonist
Widowed bookseller; receives the revelation that Arthur is a changeling; defends herself before the Stationers' Company; witnesses the Faerie battle; suppresses feelings for Walter James.
Mistress WoodAlice
Christopher MarloweProtagonist (spy plot)
Playwright and former spy; defends himself before the Star Chamber; confronts Poley and deduces the full conspiracy; killed by a sword thrust to his right eye by one of Poley's faerie agents.
Kit
Thomas NashePOV character / survivor playwright
Sole survivor of his playwright circle; grief-stricken, believes himself enchanted by the brown woman; confides Marlowe's murder story to Will Ryder and inadvertently summons the brown woman.
TomTom NasheNashe
Thomas KydAntagonist / betrayer
Marlowe's former lodger; writing a denunciation of the dead Marlowe to win back his patron Lord Strange; coldly admits the accusations are false but pleads survival necessity.
Tom KydKyd
ArthurFocal mystery / faerie prince
Alice's faerie-lineage son; held in Oriana's court; returned to Alice; later marries and prospers on a farm; revealed to be the literal Philosopher's Stone, fruit of the red king and Oriana's union.
Your Majestythe kingArtBoy
Robert Poleyactantial sender/opponent
Christopher's former handler; revealed to work for the red king; manipulated multiple conspiracies simultaneously; confesses to forging the note and ordering a murder; has Christopher killed when he learns too much.
RobertMaster Poley
BrownieHelper / familiar
Man-shaped, fur-covered, red-capped household familiar who does Alice's domestic work, guides her to the faerie revels, and ultimately departs when George arrives and reacts with hostility.
Robin GoodfellowRobin
MargeryHelper / cunning woman
Cunning woman living outside the city walls; knowledgeable about herbs, stones, and faerie lore; has a longstanding relationship with Queen Oriana; Alice's primary advisor in supernatural matters.
GeorgeSecondary antagonist / reluctant conspirator
Alice's would-be suitor and friend; plans to use Anthony's potion to win her; moralistic and suspicious of Alice's supernatural entanglements; his hostility drives away the brownie.
George CowperMaster Cowper
AnthonyOpponent / coin-debaser
Associate with occult knowledge; deliberately confuses George to hide the location of his house; possesses an alchemical apparatus and a bound supernatural creature; gives George a mysterious jar.
Anthony Drury
William RyderHelper / grieving patron
Stocky spy who, with his brother Geoffrey, recruits Christopher after catching him following them from court; lives in a grand but ugly manor on the Thames.
Sir GeoffreyGeoffreyWill
Edward BlountPublisher / minor character
Alice's neighbor at the next bookseller's stall in Paul's churchyard; impeccable literary taste; friendly presence in Alice's daily life.
Queen OrianaSender / faerie queen
Queen of the Fair Folk; returns Arthur to Alice after Brownie intercedes; dismissive of the boy's importance; implicitly jealous of Brownie's attachment to Alice; oversees the closing of the roads.
the queenOriana
Sir Philip PotterUnwitting helper
Foolish courtier who cannot remember his secretary's name; used by Christopher as an actor to bait conspirators at dinner.
Philip PotterSir Philip
AgnesWitness / secondary helper
Midwife who witnessed the changeling exchange at the Faerie court; phlegmatic observer who watched the dragons as if they were a fireworks display.
Walter JamesHelper / potential suitor
Newest member of the Stationers' Company; testifies on Alice's behalf; escorts her to the theatre and probes gently about Arthur; she is attracted to him but refuses to confide in him.
Walter
Paul HoggAlchemist antagonist
Obsessive alchemist seeking the Philosopher's Stone; holds Arthur captive and attempts to extract alchemical secrets from him; protected by conjuring circles from faerie interference.
Hogg
Nicholas RussellOpponent (conspirator)
One of the named conspirators who rehearsed a false alibi for the night of the masque assassination attempt.
Archbishop WhitgiftInquisitor
Leads the Star Chamber questioning of Christopher over the heretical manuscript.
Robert CecilStar Chamber judge
Hunchbacked son of Lord Burghley; takes extensive notes during Christopher's examination.
Gabriel HarveyMinor antagonist (offstage feud)
Middle-aged scholar and literary rival of Nashe; spotted in Paul's churchyard by Kit and Tom Kyd; flees rather than engage.
Doctor Harvey
The Brown WomanActantial sender / faerie summons
Faerie woman who appears in the tavern when Nashe summons her via the flower-favor; commands him that the battle must begin now and leaves without further explanation.
The New Faerie KingNarrator-figure / twilight king
Unnamed figure who has taken the role of king over the Fair Folk; presides over their withdrawal from the mortal world; reflects on the pull of mortality and accepts the closing of the roads.