| |
| | Beaumont |
 | | The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a very silly play with a great deal of verbal wit and situational humor that is, of course, four hundred years out of date, but which you can still appreciate if you are attentive to the situation and the characterizations. |
 | | This play belongs to a genre very popular at the time (though Shakespeare did not write in it) usually called "city comedy" or "citizen comedy" since it deals not with kings and heroes, but with ordinary London citizens of the day. |
 | | The title of The Knight of the Burning Pestle, however, clearly indicates a "romance" play of spectacular adventure, magic, and bizarre events in sprawling storylines (which plays Shakespeare did write: think of The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, etc.). |
| f00.middlebury.edu /LI101C/beaumont.html (458 words) |
|