Kemps nine daies wonder: performed in a daunce from London to Norwich / With an introduction and notes by the Rev. Alexander Dyce.

  • Kemp, William, active 1600.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kemps nine daies wonder: performed in a daunce from London to Norwich / With an introduction and notes by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other plays of Shakespeare,—in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As you like it, Hamlet, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, and The Merchant of Venice, he performed Launce, Touchstone, the Grave-digger, Justice Shallow, and Launcelot. On the first production of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour, a character* was assigned to him ; and there is good reason to believe that in Every Man out of his Humour, by the same dramatist, he repre- sented Carlo Buffone. In 1599 Kemp attracted much attention by dancing the morris from London to Norwich; and as well to refute the lying ballads put forth concerning this exploit, as to testify his gratitude for the favours he had received during his “ gambols,’-~ he published in the following year the curious pamphlet which is now reprinted. A Nine daies wonder was thus entered in the Stationers’ Books : « 22 Aprilis [1600] « Mr. Linge Entered for his copye vnder the) handes of Mr. Harsnet & Mr. | ae Man warden a booke called Kemps a ; morris to Norwiche.t J Ben Jonson alludes to this remarkable journey in Every Man out of his Humour, originally acted in 1599, where * What character is uncertain: see the names of ‘‘ The principall Comoedians’’ at the end of the play in B. Jonson’s Workes, 1616, fol. + See pp. 1, 2, 19. t Liber C. fol, 58b.