Knight of the Burning Pestle

The Knight of the Burning Pestle – whether written solely by Francis Beaumont (1586-1616) or jointly with John Fletcher (1579-1625), Shakespeare’s co-author on Henry VIII, Cardenio, and Two Noble Kinsmen and, some say, hand-picked successor as lead playwright to the King’s Men – was something completely different for its time. It is the earliest burlesque (defined as “an artistic composition...that, for the sake of laughter, vulgarizes lofty material or treats ordinary material with mock dignity.”) It is considered a mock-heroic comedy, obviously influenced in part by Cervantes’ recently published heroic adventure Don Quixote (1605.)

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