He is just a boy

When people generally go to a play or theatre production, all sense of the person who is actually portraying the character is thrown away and forgotten. This intense involvement with the characters from the audience is a beautiful piece of theatre, but when a child is performing, play goers sometimes fail to see them as their characters and view them instead as a sweet, innocent child. The social view of a child is often depicted as innocent and inexperienced to the hardships and trails of the real world. People in general, more so mothers, have a natural tendency to protect children from danger and deceit. Readers see this natural motherly care through the character of Nell in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. As the play continues, Nell not only continues to display affection for Rafe, but refers to him as more the person and apprentice he actual is than the character he is trying to portray on stage.

Rafe depicts the character of knight throughout Beaumont’s play, and although his character puts forth many noble efforts to help, like helping Mistress Merrythought find her money or releasing victims from a giant, the Citizen and Nell who reside on the stage as common citizens often refer to him still as the young child they apprentice and raise. They summon him throughout the play to act out what directions they wish him to take, like when they wish him to “march to Mile End” he is summoned by “Rafe, why Rafe, boy!” (Act V, Line 54). He is instantly brought back to his level of a young child by the use of “boy” from his master instead of the virtuous and noble knight he is supposed to be playing. Furthermore, is brought forth to Nell by, “Come hither, Rafe; come to thy mistress, boy.” Although it may seem these two characters are deeply involved in the play and the action taking place, they obviously do not consider the young Rafe as anything but a child and therefore totally disregard his status as "The Knight of the Burning Pestle."

Beaumont perhaps is trying to represent the fact that a child is a child, ignorance is bliss in their world. It’s hard to ignore the vulnerability and “sweetness” a child represents, especially in theatre when they are trying to characterize an adult, or even a woman, for a child is ignorant to what it is truly like to be such people. The citizen and Nell do not refer to Rafe as professional, in that they still claim him as a “boy” and as their apprentice they are allowed to take control over. A child evokes feeling from the audience and like Nell, they have a natural tendency to care for their well-being, but by being so over-protective, it takes away from the character the child is trying to represent and portray.