The Delta Upsilon Fraternity will produce Beaumont and Fletcher's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" for their annual play. The performance will be patterned as closely as possible on the method of production in use in the Elizabethan period; and therefore no scenery will be used, and a certain number of spectators in costume will have seats on the stage.
This play, which was first acted in 1611, was written mainly as a satire, holding up to ridicule the ranting, heroic plays so much in favor at the time, and the ignorant London burgesses who applauded them. Naturally, its butts condemned it on its first representation, but it was afterwards revived and became a common stage property during the seventeenth century. Later judgment has held it to be one of the most original of the Elizabethan comedies, both in its wit and biting satire upon the time, and its fantastic plot and humorous drawing of character.
The action opens with a prologue, but the speaker is interrupted by a citizen, one of the spectators, who leaps on the stage and demands that the actors introduce a citizen like himself into the cast. To this the speaker demurs saying there is no one left to take the part. The citizen's wife, who has joined him by this time, suggests that Ralph, their apprentice, act it, and to this the players agree. While he is dressing, the first scene of the regular play is acted.
A rather conventional love story follows, with the merchant Venturewell, as father, Jasper Merrythought, his apprentice, and his daughter Luce, as lovers, and Humphrey, as the worthless but favored suitor.
Ralph appears in the next scene as a grocer, Don Quixote, the Knight of the Burning Pestle. His master, the citizen, who directs his performance, furnishes him with various wonderful adventures, in all of which he comes to grief. He attempts to assist Humphrey in his love affairs, but is also unsuccessful in that respect, as Jasper wins Luce by having himself carried as dead to Venturewell, by whom he is immediately sent to his daughter's apartments, in order to get her to accept Humphrey. The lovers change places, and Jasper makes his escape as his own ghost. When Venturewell finds that his daughter has not been spirited away by magic, he is so relieved that he forgives them both on the spot, and all "live happily ever after" except Ralph. The "Knight of the Burning Pestle" is furnished by the citizen with surprising battles and adventures, excluding his summary transportation to Moldavia, where the Sultan's daughter is compelled to fall in love with him. With the aid of Susan, his Dulcinea del Toboso, he resists her blandishments. After a blameless career, he is finally slain by his guiding genius, as the latter considers that he must die to finish the play. He delivers an epilogue with an arrow through his temples at the close of the play.
The cast:
Read more in News
Both Swimming Teams Meet M. I. T.
