As has been touched on by previous posters, the spectacle of children on stage possesses inherently fascinating qualities. Whether cute, embarrassing, moving, or satirical, children bring up a well of emotions in the viewer. Beaumont both exploits this fact and comments on it. Beaumont knowingly contrasts the "typical" humor of young boys acting out complicated, "adult" scenes with Nell's overbearing doting, forcing the audience to consider their own reactions to children on stage.
Much attention has been paid to Nell's doting and fawning on the children in the middle of key scenes, and for good reason, as this is Beaumont's most direct satire of audience reaction to child actors; but equally interesting are scenes where Nell actually becomes swept up in the action, forgetting for a moment the actors' age. For instance, during the affair between Rafe and the Giant/Barber Nell enters a violent rage ("Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, Rafe!" (act. III, 351) during the battle, despite the obvious fact that the "battle" consists of two young boys in outlandish dress tussling with each other on the stage. In the aftermath, when Rafe frees the giant's prisoners, Nell becomes overcome with sadness, exclaiming "Alas, poor knight.--Relieve him, Rafe; relieve poor knights while you live" (act. III, 386-7). The prisoners almost all make reference to either humorous bodily functions or sexually transmitted diseases, and yet this is lost on Nell, who instead becomes swept up in their plight and pities them. Beaumont's clever ability to contrast obvious satire with base humor with occaisional seriousness on Nell's part constructs a complicated view of children on stage in this period; both satiring the audience's base interests in such companies while also highlighting the occaisional power they can display.