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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    NOTES. ret P. 20, l. 26, the great ballet-maker T. D., alias Tho. Deloney, Chro- nicler of the memorable liues of the 6. yeomenof the west, Jack of Newbery, the Gentle-craft.|—Thomas Deloney succeeded Elderton as the most popu- lar ballad-writer of the time: for an account of his poetical pieces, see Ritson’s Bibl. Poet. and Collier’s Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 100. The pleasing ballad of Fair Rosamond, reprinted in Percy’s Rel. of An. Engl. Poet. i1. 143. ed. 1794, is probably the composition of Deloney, as it is found in more than one of his publications. In 1596, had he not eluded the search of the Mayor of London, he would have been punished for writing ‘“‘a certain Ballad, containing a Complaint of great Want and Scarcity of Corn within the Realm ...... bringing in the Queen speaking with her People Dialogue-wise, in very fond and undecent sort,” &c., Stow’s Survey, B. v. 333. ed. 1720, where he is described as ‘‘ an idle Fellow, and one noted with the like Spirit in printing a Book for the Silk Weavers, wherein was found some such like foolish and disorderly matter.” Nash terms him ‘“ the Balletting Silke-weauer,” Haue with you to Saffron-walden, 1596, Sig. N. 3. Deloney was no less celebrated among the vulgar for his prose- romances than for his ballads. Thomas of Reading, or the sixe worthie Yeomen of the West, is noticed in the present passage as a well-known work, and was dramatized in 1601 (Malone’s Shakespeare, by Boswell, ii.325-6; Collier’s Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet.iii. 99), but no impression has been discovered earlier than the fourth, 1612, 4to: this tale is re- printed in Thoms's Early Prose Rom. i. Of The pleasant Historie of John Winchcomb, in his younguer yeares called Jack of Newbery, the famous and worthy Clothier of England ; declaring his life and loue, together with his charitable deeds and great Hospitalitie, &c., the earliest edition extant is the eighth, 1619,4to: its entry in the Stationers’ Books stands thus : <o7 Maii [1596]. « Tho. Millington Entered for his copie a book called Jack of Newbery So that he haue yt lawfully auc- thorised vid,” (Liber C. fol. 19.)