The Knight of the Burning Pestle (New Mermaids)

Beaumont and Fletcher wrote in the first quarter of the 17th century. In that era, play-writing was collaborative (like movie screenplays today), but more than 50 plays have attributed in whole or part to the duo. At one time, they were as or more well regarded than Shakespeare, but Shakespeare has now exclipsed many worthy playwrights of that era. "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" is a satiric comedy with several targets. One is chivalric romance (and "Don Quixote" is explicitly mentioned here). A second is London merchants. An apprentice elopes with his master's daughter and is pursued. This plot threatens to become tragic, but turns out well in the end. A different level involves a citizen and his wife who have come to see the play and want their apprentice Rafe to perform in it. They interrupt and comment on the proceedings (the wife naively acts as though what's in the plot is real--she keeps wanting to send for the police to arrest actors whose characters get in various kinds of mischief. This could be hilarious in an actual production of the play. A more mysterious character is the father of the apprentice who elopes with his love. He is unshakably merry, though he has no money, and constantly breaks into songs, most of them popular songs of the day. In the end, his spirit of good cheer wins out and the ending is a triumph of comic energy and resilient delight. Along the way, Beaumont writes in prose and verse, and much of the verse is really wonderful and sometimes quite touching. The edition modernizes spelling, which is a big help, and the notes helpfully explain words that are now archaic or obscure. My only reservation is that the editor is squeamish about the frequent double entendres--as though we're going to be shocked that there were dirty jokes in drama of that era (they're uncountable in Shakespeare). Most are obvious enough (starting with that "burning pestle") but some could use a little explanation. The introduction is a piece of solid scholarship and scholarly criticism and useful for a reader at this distance from the play. The book is a convenient size, the print is clear, and it's well manufactured--worth it to spend a little more to get a good, readable edition. I'd recommend this for people who love Shakespeare and want to learn a little about other playwrights in that period--almost inarguably the greatest period of English drama and one of the great periods in world drama.

Had to read it for a British Renaissance Literature Class. Not a bad book and quite entertaining, but definitely one of those books I wouldn't have found on my own.I would put it at a mixture between Shakespeare and Chaucer for those looking to read it.

This book is on the required reading list for my English Renaissance class I am taking for this semester. Amazon is the best place to order books from.

This was a book I needed for a class - it has some funny moments, but on the whole "not my cup of tea"

great!

It's a pretty good play but don't bother with this edition. Someone seems to have scanned a library copy and uploaded it to the Kindle system without cleaning it up at all. The scan was just terrible. So you get page headers in the middle of the text, interrupting reading on every page. Lines are broken at arbitrary places. Page numbers randomly inserted into the text. There are lots of typos where the OCR got things wrong. Generally, not readable, much less enjoyable. Example (chosen from a random page)Hum. Stay,nymph, stay:Act I Sc.ii.^The Knight of theI have a double gelding, colored bay, 120Sprung by his father from Barbarian kind; Another for myself, though somewhat blind, Yet true as trusty treeLuce. T am satisfied;I kid you not. Again, highly recommended to choose another edition.