Theatre Of the People, By the People, For the People

Although Beaumont subjects the public to his unblinking criticism, he still dedicates a substantial portion of Knight to a populist uprising in their honor. The play opens with a member of the theatre status quo delivering the play’s prologue: “From all that’s near the court, from all that’s great/ within the compass of the city walls, / We now have brought our scene” (Prologue 1-3). These are words that we as readers should not take lightly as they are certainly not taken lightly by one member of the theatre-going citizenry.

The Citizen (it’s interesting that he isn’t given a name, but only the title of ‘citizen’) takes these words literally and, considering himself part of ‘all that’s great within the city walls,’ answers the call of the stage. He stands up to the actor and demands that the theatre, “present something notably in honour of the commons of the city” (Prologue 25-26). The actor resists his initial attempts to take control of the play, but eventually surrenders power and retreats into insulting puns that go over the head of the common Citizen.

The Citizen’s coup illustrates the growing influence of London’s new middle class. The Prologue scene can be read as a parable about the middle class laying claim to the theatre and taking (quite literally in the seats on stage) the throne of power once held by the aristocracy.