The boy players in this time period seem to be innocent, with a sense of knowingness (though they are innocent, they must be aware that something is going on). For example, when Rafe is speaking soon after Nell has decided he will be a knight. Rafe gives a very short speech about his “new profession” – that is, becoming a knight. Because he was (in the play) once a grocer, he will have a burning pestle placed upon the shield “in remembrance of [his] former trade…and [he] will be called the Knight o’th’Burning Pestle.” (Act I, 266-68) Surely, because of the sort of “joke” this title was in this time period, the audience laughed when the boy player spoke these lines. If the boy was totally unaware of what these lines meant the first time he performed them, he must have at least picked up that there was something humorous about either the situation or what he was actually saying. Depending on the age of the child, he probably wouldn’t understand what a “burning pestle” could also symbolize, though he would recognize that there is something else amusing about it. Similarly, in today’s time, if a very young child repeats a curse word or any other inappropriate phrase, and a nearby adult laughs because of it, the child is likely to gain amusement from saying the curse word and repeating it, though they don’t understand exactly what the curse word means. There’s a parallel between this modern situation and with what was likely occurring with boy players in plays such as KBP or Lyly’s Galatea – the child can see that the audience is gaining a sort of pleasure (or reacting in some way, seeing as the audience might be a bit shocked while watching two boys dressed up as two girls fall in love with each other) from whatever it is the child is doing. The children, though still innocent and unaware of the deeper meaning of their actions, will at least be able to recognize that their behavior is creating a reaction from the audience—and reactions and attention are something children often love to have and create (which leads me to believe that, at least in this aspect, children might enjoy being players for plays such as these over and over).