.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 drama[vi: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 character[vii: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:

"22 Aprilis [1600]