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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    occur in the license granted by King James, 19th May, 1603, to the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (who in con- sequence of that instrument were afterwards denominated his Majesty’s Servants) there is great probability that the said entry relates to the comedian, and that he had been carried off by the plague of that year. Two scenes of two early dramas, which exhibit Kemp in propria persona, must necessarily form a portion of the present essay. Zhe Retvrne from Pernassvs: Or The Scourge of Simony. Publiquely acted by the Students in Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge, 1606,* 4to. furnishes the first extract : “ Act 4. Scen. 5. [3.] [Enter | Burbage [and | Kempe. “ Bur. Now, Will Kempe, if we can intertaine these schollers at a low rate, it wil be well; they haue oftentimes a good conceite in a part. “ Kempe. Its true indeed, honest Dick; but the slaues are somewhat proud, and, besides, it is a good sport, in a part to see them neuer speake in their walke but at the end of the stage, iust as though in walking with a fellow we should neuer speake but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can go no further. I was once at a Comedie in Cambridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all sorts on this fashion. “ Bur. A little teaching will mend these faults, and it may bee, besides, they will be able to pen a part. ‘‘ in the parish register of St. Bartholomew the Less, the marriage of William Kempe unto Annis Howard, on the 10th of February, 1605-6 ;’’ and I shall presently shew that another individual so called has been confounded with the actor. * It was probably written about 1602,—certainly before the death of Queen Eliza- beth.