Kemp - Kemps Nine Daies Wonder

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Transcriber's note

Spelling and punctuation are idiosyncratic in the original. They have not been changed.

Words and phrases referred to in the are marked thus, and link to the note in question.

Contents:

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,

That at one time,perhaps from about 1589 to 1593 or laterhe belonged to a Company under the management of the celebrated Edward Alleyn, is proved by the title-page of a drama

When Romeo and Juliet and Much ado about Nothing were originally brought upon the stage, Kemp acted Peter and Dogberry; 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, 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. Man warden a booke called Kemps morris to Norwiche.	vid.

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 Kemps shoes to throw after you! and again in his Epigrams:

or which
Did dance the famous morris unto Norwich.

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 soones 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 cagd vp within a chest of earth:
Shall be? they are: thast dancd thee out of breath,
And now must make thy parting dance with death.

Towards the end of a Nine daies wonder, Kemp announces his intention of setting out shortly on a great journey;

The date of his death has not been determined. Malone, in the uncertainty on this point, could only adduce the following passage of Dekkers Guls Horne-booke, 1609, from which, he says, it may be presumed and since the name of Kemp does not occur in the license granted by King James, 19th May, 1603, to the Lord Chamberlains Company (who in consequence of that instrument were afterwards denominated his Majestys 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. The 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.

Kemp. Few of the vniuersity pen plaies well; they smell too much of that writer Ouid, and that writer Metamorphosis, but our fellow Shakespeare hath giuen him a purge that made him beray his credit.

Bur. Its a shrewd fellow indeed. I wonder these schollers stay so long; they appointed to be here presently that we might try them: oh, here they come.

[Enter Philomusus and Studioso.]

Stud.

Take heart, these lets our clouded thoughts refine;
The sun shines brightest when it gins decline.

Bur. M[aster] Phil. and M. Stud., God saue you.

Kemp. M. Pil. and M. Otioso, well met.

Phil. The same to you, good M. Burbage. What, M. Kempe, how doth the Emperour of Germany?

Stud. God saue you, M. Kempe; welcome, M. Kempe, from dancing the morrice ouer the Alpes.

Kemp. Well, you merry knaues, you may come to the honor of it one day: is it not better to make a foole of the world as I haue done, then to be fooled of the world as you schollers are? But be merry, my lads: you haue happened vpon the most excellent vocation in the world for money; they come North and South to bring it to our playhouse; and for honours, who of more report then Dick Burbage and Will Kempe? he is not counted a Gentleman that knowes not Dick Burbage and Wil Kempe; theres not a country wench that can dance Sellengers Round but can talke of Dick Burbage and Will Kempe.

Phil. Indeed, M. Kempe, you are very famous, but that is as well for workes in print as your part in kue.

Kempe. You are at Cambridge still with sice kue, I road this my last circuit purposely, because I would be iudge of your actions.

Bur. M. Stud., I pray you take some part in this booke, and act it, that I may see what will fit you best. I thinke your voice would serue for Hieronimo: obserue how I act it, and then imitate mee.

Stud.

Who call[s] Hieronomo from his naked bed,
And, &c.

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