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

  • William Kempe
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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    Towards the end of a Nine dates wonder, Kemp an- nounces his intention of setting out shortly on a “ great journey ;’* but as no record of this second feat has come down to us, we may conclude that it was never accom- plished.+ The date of his death has not been determined. Ma- lone, in the uncertainty on this point, could only adduce the following passage of Dekker’s Guls Horne-booke, 1609, from which, he says, “it may be presumed” t that Kemp was then deceased : “Tush, tush, Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer, nor all the litter of fooles that now come drawling -behinde them, neuer plaid the Clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all.”§ George Chalmers, however, discovered an entry in the burial register of St. Saviour’s, Southwark —“‘ 1603, November 2d William Kempe, a man;|| and since the name of Kemp does not ‘¢ Since the horrible dance to Norwich .... 14 [years].’’ Sig. B. 4,—a mistake either of the author or printer. Allusions to Kemp’s morris may also be found in Dekker and Webster’s Westward Ho, 1607, Act v. sc.1,—see my ed. of Webster’s Works, iii. 103 ; and in Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayd Marian, and Hereford Towne for a Morris Daunce, &c. 1609, 4to.,—see p.10 of reprint in Miscell. Ant. Anglic. 1816. * P20: t+ The passages in The Retvrne from Pernassus (see p. xi.) ‘‘ What, M. Kempe, how doth the Emperour of Germany ?”’ and ‘‘ Welcome, M. Kempe, from dancing the morrice ouer the Alpes,’’ are, I conceive, only sportive allusions to his journey to Norwich. + Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 198. § Sig. B. 2.—Malone choses to read ‘‘ played the clownes part more naturally,’’ &c. || Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 490—Yet the name William Kemp ap- pears to have been not uncommon ; for Chalmers (wlé supra) mentions that he found