The Knight of the Burning Pestle

Author(s): Beaumont, Francis
Date of composition:
  • 1607
Date of first performance: 1607
Date of first publication: 1613
Genre (Annals): Burlesque romance
Genre: comedy

  • 1613 quarto Okes, Nicholas Burre, Walter single-play print
  • 1635 quarto Okes, Nicholas Spencer, John (?) Printed title: THE KNIGHT Of the BVRNING PESTLE. Full of Mirth and Delight. single-play print
      ESTC: S101185 1675 605 316b
      EEBO-TCP: British Library - EEBO record
      Observations: Authorship attribution in the title page: "Written by { Francis Beaumont, | and | Iohn Fletcher. } Gent."
  • [ 1661 ?] quarto single-play print
      ESTC: S101209 1675a 316(c)
      EEBO-TCP: British Library - EEBO record
      Observations: Dated 1635 in title page, "but in fact printed in London around 1661" (ESTC S101209). Printer and publisher as in 1635 quarto.
  • 1679 folio Macock, J.; [Hills, H.] Martyn, John; Herringman, Henry; Marriot, Richard play in print collection
      ESTC: R13766 Wing B1582
      EEBO-TCP: British Library - EEBO record for collection, (323 image of 580)
      Observations: Title of collection: Fifty comedies and tragedies. Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen.

  • STC/WING:
  • ESTC:
  • DEEP:
  • Greg:
  • Wiggins:

Early Performances

  • Company: Children of the Queen's Revels Venue: The Blackfriars Date: 1607
    Cast:
      Location: Venue type: commercial theatre
      Note: Company and venue inferred. Indoor “private” theatre
      Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 5: 1603-1608. 2015.
    • Company: Queen Henrietta’s Men Venue: The Cockpit Date: 1635
      Cast:
        Location: Venue type: commercial theatre
        Note: Indoor “private” theatre
        Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 5: 1603-1608. 2015.
      • Company: Queen Henrietta’s Men Venue: St James's Palace Date: 1636
        Cast:
          Location: Venue type: palace / court
          Note: 28 February
          Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 5: 1603-1608. 2015.
        • Company: Venue: Skipton Castle Date: 1636
          Cast:
          • Gerdler, Adam
          Location: Venue type:
          Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 5: 1603-1608. 2015.
        • Company: King's Men and Queen's young Company (Beeston's Boys) Venue: The Cockpit Date: 1639
          Cast:
            Location: Venue type: commercial theatre
            Note: Indoor “private” theatre
            Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 5: 1603-1608. 2015.

          Modern editions

          • Barker, Simon; Hinds, Hillary, ed. The Routledge Anthology of Renaissance Drama. London: Routledge, 2003.
          • Bevington, David; Engle, Lars; Eisaman Maus, Katharine; Rasmussen, Eric, ed. English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology. London and New York: W.W. Norton, 2002.
          • Kinney, Arthur F., ed. Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments. Malden: Blackwell, 1999.
          • Zitner, Sheldon P., ed. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont, Francis. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984. The Revels Plays.
          • Fraser, Russell A.; Rabkin, Norman, ed. Drama of the English Renaissance II: The Stuart Period. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1976.
          • Nethercot, Arthur H.; Baskervill, Charles R. ; Heltzel, Virgil B., ed. Stuart Plays. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
          • Hattaway, Michael, ed.  The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont, Francis. London: E. Benn, 1969. New Mermaids.
          • Gurr, Andrew, ed. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont, Francis. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1968. Fountainwell Drama Texts.
          • Doebler, John, ed. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont, Francis. London: Edward Arnold, 1967. Regents Renaissance Drama.
          • Hoy, Cyrus, ed. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont, Francis. In: Hoy, Cyrus, ed. The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966, pp. 1–110
          • Bowers, Fredson, ed. The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966. (10 vols.).
          • Ornstein, Robert; Spencer, Hazelton, ed. Elizabethan and Jacobean Comedy: An Anthology. Boston: Heath, 1964.
          • Brooke, Charles F. Tucker; Paradise, Nathaniel Burton, ed. English Drama 1580-1642. Boston: Heath, 1933.
          • Spencer, Hazelton, ed. Elizabethan Plays. Boston: Heath, 1933.
          • Wheeler, C. B., ed. Six Elizabethan Plays by Contemporaries of Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1915. World’s Classics Series.
          • Dyce, Alexander, ed. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher: The Text Formed from a New Collation of the Early Editions. Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John. Vol. 1.2. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Co., 1854.
          • Dyce, Alexander, ed. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher: The Text Formed from a New Collation of the Early Editions. Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John. Vol. 2/11. London: Edward Moxon, 1843.

          Select Bibliography: Translations

          • FR:
            • Beaumont, Francis. "Le chevalier de l’ardent pilon". Tra. Jones-Davies, Marie-Thérèse. Ed. Cottegnies, Line ; Laroque, François ; Maguin, Jean-Marie. Théâtre élisabéthain. Paris: Gallimard, 2009. Vol. 2.
          • IT:
            • Camerino, Aldo. "Il cavaliere del pestello ardente". Obertello, Alfredo. Teatro elisabettiano. Milano: Bompiani, 1951, p. 285-372. Vol. 1.
          • DE:
            • Beaumont, Francis. "Der Ritter von der flammenden Mörsekeule". Tra. Szudra, Klaus Udo. Dramen der Shakespearezeit. Bremen: Schünemann, 1964, p. 437-525.
            • Beaumont, Francis. "Der Ritter von der brennenden Keule. Ein Lustspiel in fünf Akten". Ed. Goldschmidt, Carl. Dramatische Werke. Berlin: {Falta nombre editorial}, 1858, p. 127-234. Vol. 1.

          Select Bibliography: Criticism

          • Austern, Linda Phyllis. "Music, its Histories, and Shakespearean (Inter-) Theatricality in Beaumont's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Ed. Barclay, Bill and Lindley, David. Shakespeare, Music, and Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 84-98.
          • Coker, Lauren. "Boy Actors and Early Modern Disability Comedy in 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' and Epicoene". Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. 2016, vol. 1, 31, p. 5-21.
          • Billing, Valerie. "Female Spectators and the Erotics of the Diminutive in Epicoene and 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Renaissance Drama. 2014, vol. 1, 42, p. 1-28.
          • Escolme, Bridget. "The Duchess of Malfi, 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'. and the Malcontent: Shakespeare's Globe, January-April 2014". Shakespeare Quarterly. 2014, vol. 2, 65, p. 209-218.
          • Yim, Sung-kyun. "A Double-Edged Sword: Parody and Satire in 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Medieval and Early Modern English Studies. 2013, vol. 2, 21, p. 231-251.
          • Smith, Joshua S. "Reading between the Acts: Satire and the Interludes in 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Studies in Philology. 2012, vol. 4, 109, p. 474-495.
          • Whitted, Brent E. "Staging Exchange: Why 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle' Flopped at Blackfriars in 1607". arly Theatre: A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama. 2012, vol. 2, 15, p. 111-130.
          • Bergeron, David M. "Paratexts in Francis Beaumont's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Studies in Philology. 2009, vol. 4, 106, p. 456-467.
          • Zacharias, Robert. "Rafe's Rebellion: Reconsidering 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance Et Réforme. 2008, vol. 3, 31, p. 103-126.
          • Munro, Lucy. "'The Knight of the Burning Pestle' and Generic Experimentation". Ed. Sullivan, Garrett A.,Jr., Patrick Cheney and Andrew Hadfield. Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 2006, p. 189-199.
          • Thomson, Leslie. "Who's in, Who's Out?: 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle' on the Blackfriars Stage". Ed. Menzer, Paul and Cohen, Ralph Alan. Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 2006, p. 61-71.
          • Bauer, Matthias. "Doolittle's Father(s): Master Merrythought in 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Ed. Mehl, Dieter, Angela Stock and Anne-Julia Zwierlein. Plotting Early Modern London: New Essays on Jacobean City Comedy. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 2004, p. 41-52.
          • Leggatt, Alexander. "The Audience as Patron: 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Ed. White, Paul Whitfield and Suzanne R. Westfall. Shakespeare and Theatrical Patronage in Early Modern England. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 2002, p. 295-315.
          • Lesser, Zachary. "Walter Burre's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". English Literary Renaissance. 1999, vol. 1, 29, p. 22-43.
          • Anderson, Linda. "'if both My Sons were on the Gallows, I would Sing': Oppression of Children in Beaumont's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of Language and Literature. 1998, 34, p. 77-92.
          • Aspinall, Dana. "The Role of Folk Humor in Seventeenth-Century Receptions of Beaumont's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Philological Quarterly. 1997, vol. 2, 76, p. 169-191.
          • Dillon, Janette. "'is Not all the World Mile End, Mother?': The Blackfriars Theater, the City of London, and 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews. 1997, 9, p. 127-148.
          • Whitworth, Charles. "'The Knight of the Calf-Skin': A Note on 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Cahiers Élisabéthains: Late Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1996, 49, p. 59-60.
          • Madelaine, Richard. "Apprentice Interventions: Boy Actors, The Burning Pestle and the Privy Mark of Irony". Q/W/E/R/T/Y: Arts, Litteratures & Civilisations Du Monde Anglophone. 1995, 5, p. 73-77.
          • Booth, Roy J. "'Down with Your Title, Boy!': Beaumont's 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' and its Insurgent Audience". Q/W/E/R/T/Y: Arts, Litteratures & Civilisations Du Monde Anglophone. 1995, 5, p. 51-58.
          • Crane, David. "The Limits of the Theatrical: In Beaumont: 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle', Buckingham: The Rehearsal and Sheridan: The Critic". Q/W/E/R/T/Y: Arts, Litteratures & Civilisations Du Monde Anglophone. 1995, 5, p. 59-64.
          • Andrews, Michael Cameron. "Beaumont's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Explicator. 1991, vol. 2, 49, p. 79-80.
          • Osborne, Laurie E. "Female Audiences and Female Authority in 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1991, vol. 2, 3, p. 491-517.
          • Steinberg, Glenn A. "'You Know the Plot/We both Agreed on?': Plot, Self-Consciousness, and the London Merchant in Beaumont's 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews. 1991, 5, p. 211-224.
          • Bliss, Lee. "'Don Quixote' in England: The Case for 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1987, 18, p. 361-380.
          • Degyansky, Barbara Knight. "A Reconsideration: George and Nell of 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". English Language Notes. 1986, vol. 3, 23, p. 27-32.
          • Bliss, Lee. "'Plot Me no Plots': The Life of Drama and the Drama of Life in 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal of Literary History. 1984, vol. 1, 45, p. 3-21.
          • Fanego, Teresa. "La Lengua De Los Ciudadanos En Dos Comedias Renacentistas: The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) y 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' (1613)". Atlantis: Revista De La Asociación Española De Estudios Ingleses y Norteamericanos. 1981, vol. 2, 2, p. 21-36.
          • Samuelson, David A. "The Order in Beaumont's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle'". English Literary Renaissance. 1979, 9, p. 302-318.
          • Miller, Ronald F. ""Dramatic Form and Dramatic Imagination in Beaumont's 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle'". English Literary Renaissance. 1978, 8, p. 67-84.
          • Gale, Steven H. "The Relationship between Beaumont's 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' and Cervantes' Don Quixote". Anales Cervantinos. 1972, 11, p. 87-96.
          • Hussey, Maurice and Agarwala, Surendra. The Play of the Weather by John Heywood and Other Tudor Comedies Adapted into Modern English Theatre Arts. {Falta nombre ciudad}: Theatre Arts, 1968.
          • Doebler, John. "Beaumont's 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' and the Prodigal Son Plays". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1965, vol. 2, 5, p. 333-344.
          • Leimberg, Inge. "Das Spiel Mit Der Dramatischen Illusion in Beaumonts 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Anglia: Zeitschrift Fur Englische Philologie. 1963, 81, p. 142-174.
          • Olive, W. J. "'Twenty Good Nights'-'the Knight of the Burning Pestle', the Family of Love, and Romeo and Juliet". Studies in Philology. 1950, 47, p. 182-189.
          • Maxwell, Baldwin. "'Twenty Good-Nights'-'the Knight of the Burning Pestle' and Middleton's Family of Love". Modern Language Notes. 1948, vol. 4, 63, p. 233-237.
          • Lindsey, Edwin S. "The Original Music for Beaumont's Play 'the Knight of the Burning Pestle'". Studies in Philology. 1929, 26, p. 425-443.

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