[reposted from TECHStyle]
This week I’m teaching Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle as part of my English 1102 course on London City Comedy. The play is usually identified as a breakthrough Early Modern parody (of other plays like The Shoemaker’s Holiday and The Four Prentises) and one of the first English plays to break the fourth wall. It is also a very challenging read, since at any time there are some three interweaving plot lines – not to mention the added noodle-twist of trying to imagine a boys acting company playing both cast and planted audience members.