Transcriber's note
Spelling and punctuation are idiosyncratic in the original. They havenot 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.
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 hesucceeded “as wel in the fauour of her Maiesty as in the opinion andgood thoughts of the generall audience,”v:1 he usually played theClown, and was greatly applauded for his buffoonery, his extemporalwit,v:2 and his performance of the Jig.v:3
That at one time,—perhaps from about 1589 to 1593 or later—hebelonged to a Company under the management of the celebrated EdwardAlleyn, is proved by the title-page of a dramavi:1 which will beafterwards cited. At a subsequent period he was a member of the Companycalled the Lord Chamberlain’s Servants, who played during summer at theGlobe, and during winter at the Blackfriars. In 1596, while thelast-mentioned house was u