Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
By Alexander Dyce and William Kemp
()
Read more from Alexander Dyce
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus From the Quarto of 1604 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus From the Quarto of 1616 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
Related ebooks
Kemps Nine Daies Wonder: Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNine Days' Wonder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadows of the Stage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurlesque Plays and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Critics Versus Shakspere A Brief for the Defendant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBon Ton or, High Life Above Stairs: 'Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's Other Son?: William Davenant, Playwright, Civil War Gun Runner & Restoration Theatre Manager Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Poems of Andrew Marvell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Notes and Queries, Number 13, January 26, 1850 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Relapse: 'Custom, madam, is the law of fools, but it shall never govern me'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complaints: "Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRepresentative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van: Winkle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Jealousie (1673) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Task, and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContemporaries of Shakespeare (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInkle and Yarico: 'This is to have to do with a schemer!'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPunch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, September 26, 1891 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweet William: A User's Guide to Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Second Book of Operas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Great Restoration Comedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Henry the Fifth Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fine Lady's Airs (1709) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Headsman The Abbaye Des Vignerons by James Fenimore Cooper - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tramp Abroad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPunch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, July 25, 1891 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaptain Pamphile by Alexandre Dumas (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich - Alexander Dyce
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kemps Nine Daies Wonder, by William Kemp
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Kemps Nine Daies Wonder
Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
Author: William Kemp
Editor: Alexander Dyce
Release Date: July 2, 2007 [EBook #21984]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KEMPS NINE DAIES WONDER ***
Produced by Irma Spehar, Louise Pryor and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
Transcriber's note
Spelling and punctuation are idiosyncratic in the original. They have not been changed.
Words and phrases referred to in the end notes
are marked thus, and link to the note in question.
Contents: Introduction, Kempe’s Nine Daies Wonder, Notes
KEMPS NINE DAIES WONDER:
PERFORMED IN A DAUNCE
FROM
LONDON TO NORWICH.
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE CAMDEN SOCIETY,
BY JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT-STREET.
M.DCCC.XL.
COUNCIL
OF
THE CAMDEN SOCIETY,
ELECTED MAY 2, 1839.
President,
THE RIGHT HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M.P.
THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. Director.
THE REV. PHILIP BLISS, D.C.L., F.S.A., Registrar of the University of Oxford.
JOHN BRUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. Treasurer.
JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A.
C. PURTON COOPER, ESQ. Q.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A.
RT. HON. THOMAS PEREGRINE COURTENAY.
T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A., M.R.I.A.
THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., Sec. S.A.
THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A.
JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, ESQ. F.S.A.
JOHN GAGE ROKEWODE, ESQ. F.R.S., Director S.A.
THOMAS STAPLETON, ESQ. F.S.A.
WILLIAM J. THOMS, ESQ. F.S.A. Secretary.
THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A., F.S.A.
INTRODUCTION.
William Kemp was a comic actor of high reputation. Like Tarlton, whom he succeeded as wel in the fauour of her Maiesty as in the opinion and good thoughts of the generall audience,
v:1 he usually played the Clown, and was greatly applauded for his buffoonery, his extemporal wit,v:2 and his performance of the Jig.v:3
That at one time,—perhaps from about 1589 to 1593 or later—he belonged to a Company under the management of the celebrated Edward Alleyn, is proved by the title-page of a dramavi:1 which will be afterwards cited. At a subsequent period he was a member of the Company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Servants, who played during summer at the Globe, and during winter at the Blackfriars. In 1596, while the last-mentioned house was undergoing considerable repair and enlargement, a petition was presented to the Privy Council by the principal inhabitants of the liberty, praying that the work might proceed no further, and that theatrical exhibitions might be abolished in that district. A counter petition, which appears to have been successful, was presented by the Lord Chamberlain’s Servants; and, at its commencement, the names of the chief petitioners are thus arranged:—Thomas Pope, Richard Burbadge, John Hemings, Augustine Phillips, William Shakespeare, William Kempe, William Slye, and Nicholas Tooley.vi:2
When Romeo and Juliet and Much ado about Nothing were originally brought upon the stage, Kemp acted Peter and Dogberry;vi:3 and it has been supposed that in 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 charactervii:1 was assigned to him; and there is good reason to believe that in Every Man out of his Humour, by the same dramatist, he represented 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,
vii:2 he published in the following year the curious pamphlet which is now reprinted. A Nine daies wonder was thus entered in the Stationers’ Books:
Ben Jonson alludes to this remarkable journey in Every Man out of his Humour, originally acted in 1599, where Carlo Buffone is made to exclaim "Would I had one of Kemp’s shoes to throw after you!"viii:1 and again in his Epigrams:—
"or which
Did dance the famous morris unto Norwich."viii:2
So also William Rowley in the prefatory Address to a very rare tract called A Search for Money, &c., 1609, 4to.:—"Yee haue beene either eare or eye-witnesses or both to many madde voiages made of late yeares, both by sea and land, as the trauell to Rome with the returne in certaine daies, the wild morrise to Norrige," &c. And Brathwait in Remains after Death, &c. 1618, 12mo. has the following lines:—
"Vpon Kempe and his morice, with his Epitaph.
"Welcome from Norwich, Kempe! all ioy to see
Thy safe returne moriscoed lustily.
But out, alasse, how soone’s thy morice done!
When Pipe and Taber, all thy friends be gone,
And leaue thee now to dance the second part
With feeble nature, not with nimble Art;
Then all thy triumphs fraught with strains of mirth
Shall be cag’d vp within a chest of earth:
Shall be? they are: th’ast danc’d thee out of breath,
And now must make thy parting dance with death."viii:3
Towards the end of a Nine daies wonder, Kemp announces his intention of setting out shortly on a great journey;
ix:1 but as no record of this second feat has come down to us, we may conclude that it was never accomplished.ix:2
The date of his death has not been determined. Malone, in the uncertainty on this point, could only adduce the following passage