a lubber JESTER, a well-KEMP-t head

[Art Neuendorffer]

-----------------------------------------------------------------
            [T]o life againe, to heare thy BUSKIN tread,
            [A]nd SHAKE a stage : Or, when thy SOCKES were on,
            [L]eave thee alone, for the comparison
            [O]f all, that INSOLENT GREECE, or haughtie Rome
            [S]ent forth, or since did from their ashes come.

        probability of *TALOS* (Greek: "SUFFERER") ~  1/1,235

---------------------------------------------------------
           Measure for Measure  Act 2, Scene 2

 

ISABELLA:  So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
        And he, that suffer's. O, it is excellent
        To have a GIANT's strength; but it is tyrannous
        To use it like a GIANT.

                  Act 3, Scene 1

 

ISABELLA: The sense of death is most in apprehension;
        And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
        In corporal SUFFERANCE finds a pang as great
        As when a GIANT dies.

---------------------------------------------------------

The Greek verb odussomai associated with Odysseus'

     name can mean "to suffer or receive pain."

------------------------------------------------------------

What reminiscences of a human subject suffering from progressive melancholia did these objects evoke in Bloom?

 

An old man, widower, unKEMPt of hair, in bed, with head covered, sighing: an infirm dog, Athos: aconite, resorted to by increasing doses of grains and scruples as a palliative of recrudescent neuralgia: the face in death of a septuagenarian, suicide by poison.

-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.jottings.ca/john/voices/lang_being.html

<<in the brilliant closing pages of Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus bares in his diary what at the time might have been called his poetic soul:  [March 20.] Told me once, in a moment of thoughtless­ness, his father was sixty-one when he was born. Can see him. Strong farmer type. Pepper and salt suit. Square feet. UnKEMPt, grizzled beard.

-------------------------------------------------------------

            So This Is Dyoublong?

           Hush! Caution ! Echoland !

 

    How charmingly exquisite! It reminds you

 of the outwashed engravure that we used to be

 blurring on the blotchwall of his innKEMPt house.

------------------------------------------------------------

One day in the national library we had a discussion. Shakes. After. His lub back: I followed. I gall his kibe.

 

Stephen, greeting, then all amort, followed a lubber JESTER, a well-KEMP-t head, newbarbered, out of the vaulted cell into a shattering daylight of no thought.

 

What have I learned? Of them? Of me?

------------------------------------------------------------------
                Lady MARY  WRiOThesLEY  MONTAGU Heneage

 

And as widow of the Treasurer of the Chamber (Thomas Heneage d.1592)
          Southampton's mother paid KEMPE,
 Shakespeare & BURBAGE 20 pounds FOR WORK NOT EVEN DONE:

 

<<1595-3-15: Royal record. An entry in the accounts of the Treasurer of
the Chamber reads: "To William KEMPE, William Shakespeare and Richard
  Burbage, servaunts to the Lord Chamberleyne, upon the Councille's
warrant dated at Whitehall XVth Marcij 1594, for two severall comedies
or enterludes shewed by them before her majestie in Christmas tyme
laste part viz St. Stephen's daye and Innocents daye...">>

 

   But it was THE ADMIRAL's men (not the Lord Chamberlain's)
   who played for the Queen on Innocent's Day (Dec. 28, 1594).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  _The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus_ (1601)

 

 KEMPE:  Few of the university [men] pen plays well, they smell too much
 of that writer Ovid,and that writer Metamorphosis, and talk too much of
 Proserpina and Jupiter. Why, here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them
  all down, aye and BEN JONSON too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent
 fellow, he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill, but our fellow
  Shakespeare hath GIVEN HIM A PURGE that made him bewray his credit.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 <<It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than
 to keep them for PURGATION in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive
 ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that
   fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves
       now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder
  will the RECKONING be and the more we keep for the BURNING.>>

 

         _Imitation of Christ_ by Thomas 'a KEMPIS

       "Of two evils the less is always to be chosen."

 

      "Happy they, who penetrate into internal things,
    and endeavour to prepare themselves more & more
    by daily exercises for attaining to heavenly secrets."
--------------------------------------------------------------
         Thomas à KEMPIS ["I'm a Shakspe moàt."]
   http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/sources/a_kempis.html

 

<<_Of the Imitation of Christ_ was first circulated, and widely copied
out, after 1425 A.D., at which time it's authorship was not made public.
  In 1441 however Thomas à KEMPis formally affirmed that he was

   the author of the some 13 works including the four books that

 were subsequently associated in the Of the Imitation of Christ. This
authorship was challenged for a time in later centuries. It would appear
 that the four books that are today associated under the title Of the
Imitation of Christ were not so associated under that title by Thomas a
KEMPis. What posterity thus regards as Thomas a KEMPis "work" is heavily
 imbued with a sincere mysticism where the individual human spirit is
encouraged to seek to approach, and make progress towards, the Divine.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ukans.edu/kansas/medieval/108/lectures/margery.html

 

<<Margery Burnham KEMPE(1373-post 1438) was the daughter of John
Burnham, five times mayor of the town of Lynn, a flourishing town of
Norfolk. An illiterate woman, Margery KEMPE's spiritual biography is
often called the first autobiography in English. This book, while not an
extremely popular or well-known source, managed to survive into the 20th
century through a single manuscript. The Book of Margery KEMPE provides
us with an atypical look at the medieval world. Instead of the customary
educated male religious or upper class view, we have an alternate
perspective-one from a unique, middle class, uneducated woman, who
achieved piety despite her married and lay status. Margery went on
numerous pilgrimages throughout England and Europe, including one to
the Holy Land where she received a gift from God-tears and sobbing,
sometimes to the point of shrieking, whenever she thought about Christ
and His Passion. This, and her dialogues with Christ, the Virgin Mary,
 and other saints, are what classify Margery KEMPE as a mystic.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
 1584    Oxford takes charge of the WORCESTER's MEN
        [William Byrd, Will KEMP, Christopher Beeston].
------------------------------------------------------------
                  Men of the Cloth

 

 Tarlatan => A kind of thin, transparent cotton muslin for dresses.
    KEMP => Coarse, rough hair wool or fur, injuring its quality.
------------------------------------------------------------
 Sir Philip Sidney was Godfather to Richard Tarlton's son
      while 'coarse' Will KEMP was but a messenger boy:

 

   A (Utrecht/March, 1586) letter from Sidney
               to his father-in-law Francis Walsingham:

 

<<I wrote to you a Letter by Will, my Lord of Lester's jesting plaier,
enclosed in a letter to my wife, and I never had answer thereof. . .
I since find that the knave deliver'd the letters to my ladi of Lester,
        but whether she sent them yow or no I know not.>>
------------------------------------------------------------
Laila Roth wrote:

 

<<We don't know for sure whether the William KEMP buried 1603
 was our KEMP, but he could have been. More important is the fact,
that he definitely was in Denmark in June 13th 1585 with another group
of English actors on the invitation of king Frederick II, who on that
very day inaugurated the celebrated castle at Elsinore! The first
production of Hamlet might very well have been the treat of the day!
The king was so enthusiastic about the performance, so he invited
those very actors to come back next year, which they did, seven
of them, one of which was KEMP, another Bryan, there was a third
celebrated name which I don't recall at the moment. BUT the most
important thing of all, one of the 1585 party was most probably
WILLIAM STANLEY, the younger brother of Ferdinando, heir to the
title of Earl of Derby, a royal cousin, heirs to the throne as
legally as king James of Scotland, but they were Catholics.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<KEMP probably began his career as a member of the earl of Leicester's
company, but his name first appears after the death of Leicester in a
list of players authorized by an order of the privy council in 1593 to
play 7 miles out of London. Ferdinand Stanley, Lord Strange, was the
patron of the company of which KEMP was the leading member until 1598,
and in 1594 was summoned with Burbage and Shakespeare

 

Shakespeare returned to the theatre in 1594, and became a leading member
of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, formally known as Lord Strange's Men. The
manuscript accounts of the treasurer of the royal chamber in the public
records office tells us the following:

 

"To William KEMPE, William Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage, servants to
the Lord Chamberlain, upon the council's warrent dated at Whitehall xv
die Marcij 1594 for two several comedies or interludes showed by them
before her Majesty in Christmas time last past, viz; upon St. Stephan's
day and Innocent's day, xiiij li. vj s. viij d. and by way of her
Majesty's reward...">>

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Art Neuendorffer

 

P.S.,

--------------------------------------------------------------------
      _Will KEMP_  Copyright © 1997 Donato Colucci
   http://www.angelfire.com/ma/21stcentshakestud/kbio.html

 

<<Time has cast a shadow over Will KEMP's origin, formative years and
early career. He was born William KEMP, probably in the early to mid
1550s. We know nothing about his parentage. There were numerous KEMPs in
the London parish registers at the time. Perhaps he was a Londoner. But
since KEMP was as well known for his morris dance as for his clowning, a
better guess might be found in Old Meg of Herefordshire (1609):

 

The courts of kings for stately measures: the city for light heels, and
nimble footing: the country for shuffling dances: western men for
gambols: Middlesex men for tricks above ground: Essex men for the hay:
Lancashire for hornpipes: Worcestershire for bagpipes: but Herefordshire
for a morris dance, puts down, not only all Kent, but very near (if one
had line enough to measure it) three-quarters of Christendom.[1]

 

It may be that Herefordshire can claim Will KEMP. Nine Days' Wonder
reveals that KEMP had at least a grammar- school education and that he
had gained considerable knowledge from the theatre. He certainly knew
that the historians Stowe, Hall, Froisart, Grafton and Holinshed had
been ransacked for the chronicle plays. He also demonstrates familiarity
with Thomas Deloney, William Elderton, Anthony Munday and other
contemporary writers. While his prose may lack the erudition of the
University Wits, he was not the illiterate that eighteenth century
scholar George Chalmers made him out to be.

 

KEMP is first heard of as a member of the Earl of Leicester's men. This
cannot have been in 1580, however, as David Wiles believes. Citing a
record that Leicester's players were in that year paid for a performance
at Ipswich, Wiles also notes the additional payment of 6d for "carrying
a letter to Mr. KEMPE."[2] Will KEMP's status would not have entitled
him to the honorific "Mr." The recipient of the letter was probably the
Catholic priest with the same name referred to by Thomas Doyley in a
letter to Leicester, as shown by Mithal.[3] It is more likely that our
man comes to light in 1585. How he came to be associated with
Leicester's men is not clear. While we know nothing of Will KEMP's early
career, we do have information about the Earl of Leicester's men, and it
is to them that we must turn for the first knowledge of our subject.

 

The Earl of Leicester's men began as players of Robert Dudley no later
than 1559. Dudley, a favorite of and sometime suitor to Queen Elizabeth,
held the titles of Master of the Horse and High Steward of Cambridge.
Dudley's players assumed the name by which they would be better known
upon his ennoblement in 1564. In the same year he also became Chancellor
of Oxford. Leicester's players toured far and wide and played at court
during the Christmas seasons of 1560-1 and 1562-3. While continuing to
tour the provinces, however, they did not reappear at court for a
decade. Information about the company in 1572 is derived from a letter
from Leicester's players asking their patron for an appointment, not
only as liveried retainers but as household servants. The letter, in
reality a request for a license, was prompted by a proclamation reviving
a statute of 1559. That document imposed upon mayors of towns, and
justices of the peace elsewhere, the duty of licensing plays. In
over-zealous hands this regulatory instrument could become a vehicle for
suppression. Leicester's men needed the license in order to tour free
from the interference of local authorities. The letter was signed by
James Burbage, John Perkin, John Laneham, William Johnson, Thomas
Clarke, and the actor/dramatist Robert Wilson. On May 10, 1574,
Leicester's men enjoyed a unique favor. They became protected against
Puritan opposition in the city by obtaining from the Queen the grant of
a patent of incorporation under the Privy seal.[4] This warrant
permitted the company to perform anywhere in London or the realm and
would supercede the license from the Earl. Possession of this document
would give the company even greater freedom, especially on tour, when
players were subject to arrest under the ever-tightening laws of
vagabondage. Since KEMP's name is not on either document, he must have
joined after 1574.

 

The leader of Leicester's men was James Burbage. Burbage, described in
contemporary documents as a joiner by trade, built the first playhouse
in England, the Theatre, in 1576.[5] The Theatre and the plays of
Leicester's men proved to be such a success that Burbage eventually
became a principal in a second theatre, the Curtain, built the following
year by Henry Lanman.[6] He was also the father of Richard Burbage, the
creator of Shakespeare's greatest roles. KEMP's theatrical connections
to Shakespeare, then, span a considerable period of time. In 1583 Edmund
Tilney, Master of the Revels, was instructed to select a company of
actors for the direct service of the Queen as a replacement for the
defunct Queen's interlude players. The Queen's actors were conscripted
from the most important of the existing companies. The Earl of
Leicester's men lost three of their top members, Laneham, Johnson and
Wilson.[7] It is possible that KEMP joined at his time. Laneham was
Leicester's clown. KEMP may have taken his place.

 

At this juncture, Leicester's men lost their priority on the London
theatre scene. The Queen's men appear to have taken over the Theatre.
James Burbage is thought to have retired from acting to concentrate on
theatrical real estate investments, although in 1584 he refers to
himself as "my L[ord] of Hunsdon's man." But Leicester's players
continued operations. In 1584 Leicester was raised to Lord Steward. His
players toured Coventry, Leicester, Gloucester and Norwich. They were at
Dover in June 1585, and at Bath in August.[8] At this time the company
was evidently split, or doubled, for the Earl would be taking a full
complement of actors to the continent while another group continued to
act under his name at home.

 

Leicester was appointed to the command of the English forces on August
28, 1585, in order to lead an expedition to the Low Countries. For some
time the Dutch had been offering Elizabeth sovereignty of the United
Provinces in exchange for protection against Spain, which was moving to
crush them. This was an invitation the Queen was loath to accept, for to
do so was tantamount to declaring war on Spain. And while relations with
Spain were hostile, in 1585 England did not have the navy it would have
in 1588, the year of the Armada. At the same time, the Queen did not
want the Low Countries to fall to Philip II. To make matters worse, the
Prince of Parma had just taken Antwerp, the center of England's
continental cloth market. Virtually trapped, the Queen decided to
decline the title but to assist with men and weapons.[9]

 

Leicester left Harwich on December 8 and arrived at the port of Flushing
on the 10th with one-hundred ships. He was greeted by Sir Philip Sidney
who was acting as governor of Flushing. It is reported that Leicester's
landing was spectacular with a deafening roar of ordnance in the harbor.
The Earl was a man of great wealth and travelled with a retinue to rival
the Queen's. Lady Dudley incurred Elizabeth's wrath for touting the
superiority of her train. Her punishment was to remain in England.
Leicester's enormous entourage included twelve musicians, well-equipped
with trumpets and drums, and fifteen players.[10] Such a troupe would be
more than sufficient for full-scale dramatic activity. From records of
London court performances, we know that Leicester's repertoire included
such titles as Telomo, Delight, A Greek Maid, The May Lady, The Collier
and Panecia[11], possibly an early version of Much Ado About Nothing.
There is no evidence, however, that public performances were given in
the Netherlands during Leicester's tenure. We must conclude that the
company performed only for Leicester and his hosts. The historian Stowe
records sumptuous banquets and lavish entertainments given in
Leicester's honor as he made his progress from Flushing to Rotterdam,
Delft, The Hague, Amsterdam and finally Utrecht.[12] It is against this
backdrop that Will KEMP makes his certain debut on the world's stage. He
was one of the fifteen players. But he was more than that, since
Leicester also employed him for quasi-diplomatic purposes, as we shall
see, as a messenger and ambassador of good will. KEMP, it appears, could
be trusted, and trust is a commodity developed over time. This weighs in
favor of his joining Leicester's players in 1583 as a replacement for
Laneham.

 

R. C. Bald published records of payments to the players, records
extracted by Halliwell-Phillipps from Leicester's household account book
before it was destroyed in the fire that consumed the Shakespeare
Memorial Library at Birmingham in 1879. On December 29, the players were
paid ten pounds. On January 1, 1586, they were paid an additional forty
shillings for their passage "back into England." The personal
relationship between Leicester and KEMP is stated in an entry made the
following day: "Your Lordship gave William KEMP the player thirty
shillings the same night in your bed chamber out of the ten pounds which
I gave your Lordship for play with Count Morris and my Lord of Essex at
double hand lodam, which thirty shillings your Lordship said was in
exchange of a rose noble which was given him by Count Hollocke
[?Hohenlo]." On January 4, there is a payment of twenty shillings "to
William KEMP the player for his charges into England."[13] The separate
payments for travelling expenses suggest that KEMP enjoyed a special
status.

 

Most of the players left for England immediately following the Christmas
festivities, which culminated with Leicester's grand entry into The
Hague on January 6. One who remained behind, however, was the former
Leicester's man Robert Wilson--now apparently on leave from the Queen's.
For on March 4 we have the record of a payment of forty shillings to
Wilson for his passage back to England.[14] The temporary employment of
Wilson provides additional evidence that Leicester had increased the
number of his players (hence the split company) for the trip to the Low
Countries. Wilson was no doubt released from his duties because
Leicester knew that some of his players were returning.

 

In April 1586 the Danish chancellor Henrik Ramel sailed for England with
the prospect of a Danish mediation between England and Spain. He too
travelled with a considerable retinue which included nine trumpeters and
eight other instrumentalists. Among them were the Englishmen Thomas
Warrin and Thomas Bull. On the return voyage were two new groups of
English performers who must have come from England in one of Ramel's
three ships. From later records of the Elsinore payroll we know that one
group consisted of Will KEMP and his apprentice, Daniel Jones. In the
other group were Thomas Stevens, Thomas King, Robert Percy, George Bryan
and Thomas Pope.[15] Of the first three men we know next to nothing, but
Bryan and Pope were to share a long professional relationship with both
KEMP and Shakespeare.

 

KEMP was thus at Utrecht on April 23, St. George's Day. Stowe records
the festivities, which included an after-dinner performance of "dancing,
vaulting and tumbling, with The Forces of Hercules, which gave great
delight to the strangers, for they had not seen it before."[16] This
proves that the performers were English and not, as some have thought,
Dutchmen. I was once of the opinion, as others may be, that

 

(The Forces of Hercules, was a play. After all, Stowe distinguishes it
from dancing, vaulting, and tumbling with a title. But there can be
little doubt that it was an acrobatic performance. K. M. Lea informs us
that 'Forze d'Ercole' was part of the repertory of travelling Italian
comedians who applied for a license in Geneva in 1546. Among other
performances, says Lea, a still earlier mention of the 'Forze d'Ercole'
as a momaria given in Venice on Maundy Thursday 1528 may refer to a
spectacular entertainment: after Neptune, Mars, Mercury, and other
deities had gone by on sea-horses, Hercules entered with lion-skin, 'che
faceva le sue forze con vari balletti et sacrifizii e morte de Cacho,
Zerbeo ed altri.'[17] E. K. Chambers found an "entremectz mouvans" of
the Labors of Hercules in France in 1468.[18]

 

Professor Wiles speculates that KEMP may have participated in the
tilting at barriers which followed in the evening: "We learn from an
account of 1584 that at such events knights would appear in role, and
one of their servants, also in role, would deliver an appropriate
speech, commmonly designed to evoke laughter. In a miniature of Essex
dressed for tilting, we have an illustration of such a comic servant. At
events such as these, a retained clown proved his value."[19]

 

On May 6th, ever eager to please, KEMP was rewarded with five shillings
for "leaping into a ditch" as Leicester was reviewing the troops at
Amersford.[20] What was KEMP, a clown, doing at Amersford on an
obviously military occasion? He can only have been there at the
invitation of Leicester. Therefore, it was part of KEMP's particular
service to accompany Leicester about, entertaining him with quips and
spontaneous antics. The leap into the ditch sounds like something done
on a dare or wager.

 

KEMP may have pleased his master but he cannot have pleased Sir Philip
Sidney. On March 24 Sidney, writing from Utrecht to his father-in-law,
Sir Francis Walsingham, says: "I wrote a letter to you by Will, my Lord
of Leicester's jesting player, enclosed in a letter to my wife, and I
never had answer thereof. It contained something to my lord of Leicester
and council, that some way might be taken to stay my lady there. I since
diverse times have writ to know whether you had received them, but you
never answered me that point. I since find that the knave delivered the
letters to my lady of Leicester.[21] KEMP, then, served as a messenger
on the return trip to England after Leicester's entry in The Hague in
January.

 

Ramel's embassy was back in Denmark by June 16 and so were the players
he had brought from England. From the 17th wages were paid to "William
KEMP, instrumentalist" and Daniel Jones who stayed two months and
received an extra month's wages as a gift.[22] The payment to KEMP and
his boy provides us with the only clue we have to the date of KEMP's
birth. According to T. W. Baldwin, Daniel Jones may have been the
predecessor of the apprentice William Ecclestone. If so, KEMP was above
twenty-one years probably no later than 1576. He must therefore have
been born about 1554.[23] This date seems to square with what we know
about his career. If KEMP took Laneham's place with Leicester's men in
1583, he would have been about twenty-nine, an appropriate age to become
a leading player in the company. The fact that KEMP had an assistant
gives more than a suggestion as to what type of entertainment he was
providing. Daniel Jones must have been playing the pipe and tabor as
accompaniment to KEMP's morris dance. After all, KEMP was in a foreign
land and would have to rely chiefly on his non-verbal skills.

 

King Frederick II of Denmark must have been highly entertained by KEMP's
performances at Elsinore. The wages paid to Bryan, Pope and their
brethren were not recorded, so it appears that they were paid
separately, possibly out of the King's "pocket," not an unusual
occurrence. This is another indication that KEMP's act was basically a
solo affair. While in Denmark, tragedy befell the players' colleague
Thomas Bull. In a fit of jealousy involving a woman, Bull killed a
compatriot named Thomas Bolton. Bull was beheaded at Kronborg for the
murder. In September, probably because of notoriety surrounding the
murder, Frederick passed the English players on to the Elector of
Saxony.[24] It has not been established whether KEMP rejoined Leicester
or went on to Dresden with the others who remained until July 17, 1587.
But there is a reason, as we shall see, to believe that he did go to
Dresden. (There is a third possiblility, one I find highly unlikely,
that KEMP returned to England directly from Denmark.)

 

The Dutch asked Leicester to assume the title of Absolute Governor of
the United Provinces. This Leicester was reluctant to do, knowing the
Queen's mind vis-a-vis Spain. She had, in fact, warned him against doing
so. At the urging of William Davison, Leicester's confidante and the
English agent resident at Antwerp, Leicester did accept the title. This
event sent Elizabeth into a frenzy. Her immediate response was to
require Leicester's recall, replacing him with Thomas Heneage. The Queen
suffered weeks of insomnia and wild rages fearing war with Spain.
Leicester determined to return for the opening of Parliament at the end
of October. The Parliament's first business would be to decide the fate
of Mary Stuart, also known in history as Mary Queen of Scots. But it was
not until the end of November that Sir Francis Drake was sent with
eights ships to fetch Leicester and his huge entourage.[25] If KEMP had
rejoined Leicester after his two months in Denmark, which I do not think
is the case, he would have returned to England at this time.

 

Leicester's men were at court on December 26, 1586, and in London as of
late January 1587, further evidence of the split company. They toured
throughout 1587 during which time the company must have finally reunited
upon the return of Bryan, Pope and the others in July. On September 4,
1588, Leicester's men were at Norwich and here William Stonage, a
cobbler, was committed to prison at their suit "for lewd words uttered
against the ragged staff" (Leicester's badge). Ten days later they were
performing at Ipswich and evidently did not yet know that Leicester had
died the same day that the cobbler was imprisoned.[26]

 

KEMP created a reputation for himself in Europe. The playwright and
pamphleteer Thomas Nashe confirms this in An Almond for a Parrot (1590):
"For coming from Venice the last summer, and taking Bergamo in my way
homeward to England, it was my hap sojourning there some four or five
days, to light in fellowship with the famous Francatrip Harlequin, who,
perceiving me to be an Englishman by my habit and speech, asked me many
particulars of the order and manner of our plays, which he termed by the
name of representations: amongst other talk he inquired of me if I knew
any such parabolano [storyteller, i.e., actor] here in London as Signior
Chiarlatano KEMPino. Very well (quoth I), and have been oft in his
company. He hearing me say so, began to embrace me a new, and offered me
all courtesies he could for his sake, saying, although he knew him not,
yet for report he had heard of his pleasure, he could not but be in love
with his perfections being absent."[27] "Chiarlatano [charlatan, i.e.,
impersonator] KEMPino" can only have been Will KEMP.

 

Of those who have noted the above reference, Professor Wiles is the
first to doubt the veracity of Nashe's statement. It is clear that
Nashe's intentions are strictly satirical, for An Almond is a reply to
Martin Mar-Prelate and the 'Puritan Discipline Tracts.' And Nashe, who
published this item anonymously, hit upon a very funny idea in
dedicating the pamphlet to a clown instead of some grandee as was usual.
Yet there is no valid reason for repudiating Nashe's account of his
visit to Italy which appears to be based on a real experience. Wiles
says in a footnote, "Nashe's dedication...is fantasy. Although
Arlecchino purported to be a Bergomask, no player of the part really
came from Bergamo."[28] Wiles cites Ducharte's The Italian Comedy but
evidently has not read it closely or even bothered to look at the
illustrations. If he had, he would have discovered that the "Francatrip
Harlequin" Nashe met at Bergamo was Gabriello Panzanini of the Gelosi
company, the creator and only performer of the character Franca-Trippa.
Panzanini was at Paris in 1577.[29] He was with the Uniti company in
1593, and later with the Constanti.[30] Since his companies travelled
widely, he certainly could have been at Bergamo in 1589. Nashe,
moreover, does not say that the actor came from Bergamo, but that he
merely met him there.

 

KEMP derived his dance, called a "jig," from the morris dance. The word
"morris" applied to dance is derived from "Morisco," which in Spanish
signifies a Moor. The dance probably came to England by way of France.
In France it was an upper class custom for a dancer to come into the
hall, when supper was finished, his face blackened with soot so as to
represent a Moor, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and
bells tied to his legs. He then proceeded to dance the length of the
hall, backwards and forwards. Initially the dance was performed by
striking the ground with the forepart of the foot; as this was found to
be too fatiguing, the motion was afterward confined to the heel, the
toes being kept firm, ennabling the dancer to rattle his bells. [31] The
Spanish morris was performed by dancers with blackened faces playing
castanets.

 

The origin of the morris has also been sought in the Pyrrhic dance of
Greece. This was a military dance in which the participants carried a
sword and buckler, with which they made a clashing noise, and performed
various quick revolutions. In some parts of England there was a Morisco
dance which seems to have been a combination of the Pyrrhic and Moorish
dances.[32] It was to one of these that Shakespeare alludes in 2 Henry
VI (III, i, 364): "I have seen him / Caper upright like a wild Morisco,
/ Shaking his bloody darts, as he his bells." It is more than likely
that, in the French fashion, KEMP entertained the Dutch and Danish
courts with an after-dinner morris, though, as part of his service to
Leicester, he probably participated in the dramatic activities provided
by the company of actors as well.

 

The morris seems to have made its appearance in England in the late
fifteenth century around the time of Henry VII. During the reign of
Henry VIII the morris figured prominently in various parochial
festivals. The May games, which seem to have been instituted for the
encouragement of archery, were generally accompanied by morris dancers.
In this recreation the principal characters were Robin Hood and Maid
Marian (supplanting the earlier May King and May Queen), Little John,
Friar Tuck, the fool, the piper (a necessary attendant on a morris), and
a hobby -horse, a pasteboard-and-cloth construction containing a "rider"
who exercised burlesque horsemanship. We also find the morris in the
ceremonies of Holy Thursday, Whitsun or "White Sunday," also known as
Pentecost, bride-ales or weddings, and the raucous feast called the Lord
of Misrule. But there was nothing consistent about the dramatis personae
of these celebrations, the casting accomplished as circumstances
warranted. There might, for example, be simply a Maid Marian and a Friar
accompanying the morris-dancers.[33] Parishes had established
morris-dancing troupes and sometimes loaned costumes to neighboring
parishes.[34] It is conceivable that KEMP first learned the morris in
one of the parishes and later left its ranks to become a professional.

 

During the reign of Elizabeth the Puritans managed to reek havoc among
the May games. Through their preachings and invectives certain
characters were suppressed. Friar Tuck was deemed a remnant of Popery,
and the hobby-horse an impious and pagan superstition. There are a
number of allusions to the demise of the hobby-horse in contemporary
plays, the best known being Hamlet's "For O, for O, the hobby-horse is
forgot" (III, ii, 142). Maid Marian lost her delicacy and importance
becoming little more than a whore. Falstaff mentions her degraded state
in 1 Henry IV (III, ii, 113). She was now impersonated by a clown. In
Robert Laneham's "Letter from Kenilworth," a bride-ale is described, in
which we see how the celebration was streamlined with "six dancers, Maid
Marian, and the fool."[35] When in Nine Days' Wonder KEMP, the
self-described fool, dances with a country lass he terms Maid Marian, we
observe, as it were, only the vestige of a once complex performance.

 

The jig, eventually made its way onto the public stage, probably through
the performances of KEMP's predecessor, Richard Tarlton. The jig, always
following a play in the public theatres, became increasingly complex in
form. At last they were scripted. Very few jigs have survived, making it
difficult to generalize about them. There seems to have been two types.
One type of jig was romantic, treating characters sympathetically, the
other was patently farcical and often satiric. Jigs were occasionally
published. Three that were entered into the Stationer's Register were
attributed to KEMP: 1) "28 December [1591], Thomas Gosson, Entred for
his copie under thand of Mr Watkins, the Thirde and last parte of KEMPEs
Jigge" (implying that a first and second part had been published, though
evidently not registered); 2) "2 May [1595], William Blackwell, Enterd
for his copie under Mr warden Binges hande, a ballad, of Mr KEMPEs Newe
Jigge of the Kitchen stuffe woman"; 3) "21 October [1595], Tho. Gosson,
Entred for his copie under thande of the Wardenes, a Ballad called KEMPs
newe Jygge betwixt a souldior and a Miser and Sym the clown". Ascribed
to KEMP in the margin is "a pleasant newe Jigge of the broomeman," but
other than the title, nothing is known about this piece. Around this
same time was entered a jig attributed to "Phillips," no doubt Augustine
Phillips, KEMP's colleague. Among the few extant pieces one, "A Pretty
New Jig between Francis the Gentleman, Richard the Farmer, and Their
Wives" (otherwise known as Attowell's Jig), is attributed to the actor
George Attowell.

 

Some antiquarian writers thought that KEMP was the author of the jigs
which bear his name. Dyce thought that the published jigs were written
by regular dramatists and merely performed and made popular by the
actors. In this, authority Charles Read Baskervill follows Dyce. Wiles
avoids the issue altogether, simply referring to the works as "KEMP's
jigs."

 

But a biographer of KEMP wants to examine the question, for it is
obviously a matter of importance to know whether the three jigs (five
implied, possibly six) entered in the Stationers Register should be
considered his compositions. KEMP tells us that Nine Days' Wonder was
his first pamphlet. This would weigh, though not conclusively, against
his having written the jigs. But the published jigs were not pamphlets.
They were published in the manner of a broadside ballad, a single, large
sheet of foolscap. Numerous broadsides are extant. A broadside could not
have been confused with a pamphlet which was usually published in the
form of a quarto, sheets of paper folded into fourths. KEMP might well
have said that Nine Days' Wonder was his first pamphlet, yet still have
been the author of some broadsides.

 

The surviving jigs do not suggest that great literary gifts were
required of their authors. Though the jig had a rudimentary dramatic
format, it was meant to be sung and danced. Basically, a jig was a
collection of popular songs with new lyrics-- parodies. I do not
necessarily believe that writing jigs was beyond KEMP's ability. We know
he had great skill with the form in general. Tarlton wrote jigs, but
then Tarlton is known to have written plays.

 

In The Return from Parnassus (?1603) in which KEMP figures as a
character, Philomusus says, "Indeed, Mr. KEMP, you are very famous, but
that is as well for works in print as your part in cue."[36] I take this
to be satirical as opposed to factual since Nine Days' Wonder, and all
the jigs combined, if KEMP wrote them, would not add up to much of an
oeuvre.

 

In the final analysis, the authorship of the jigs is a difficult call
considering the skimpy facts. Most telling seems to be Marston's
allusion in the Scourge of Villainy (1599):

 

Praise but Orchestra and the skipping Art,
You shall command him; faith, you have his heart
Even cap'ring in your fist. A hall, a hall,
Room for the spheres! the orbes celestial
Will dance KEMP's jig. They'll revel with great jumps,
"A worthy poet hath put on their pumps."[37]

 

Considering the evidence, I am inclined to agree with Dyce and
Baskervill. I do not think that KEMP wrote the jigs, but that he merely
popularized them.

 

On December 16, 1591, Thomas Gosson entered "the Seconde parte of the
gigge betwene Rowland and the Sexton." Twelve days later he entered the
third part previously cited. The probability, then, is that the third
part (and therefore the first part), is one of a series of Rowland jigs
preserved in German singspiele. In addition to Rowland and the Sexton,
are Rowland and Rowland's Godson, possibly the other two parts. These
may have been the three jigs in which KEMP was concerned.[38]

 

That the Rowland jigs were well-known in England there can be no doubt.
In the Induction of Nashe's Summers' Last Will and Testament (c. 1592),
Will Summers says: "Why he hath made a Prologue longer then his Play:
nay, 'tis no Play neyther, but a shewe. Ile be sworne, the Jigge of
Rowlands God-sonne is a Gyant in comparison of it." [39] Two salient
facts emerge from the study of these jigs: they were vehicles for the
clown and the subject matter was adultery. Their nature might be
conveyed by stating that they compare to the native farce of John
Heywood, particularly Johan Johan. This in turn suggests that the jig
may owe something to French farce for, as Ian Maxwell has argued (French
Farce & John Heywood), Heywood was indebted to France. (An alternative
to this theory, concieved by C. W. Wallace, is that some of the plays
attributed to Heywood are actually the work of William Cornish, and that
France is indebted to England. This matter should be investigated
afresh.) (P>Singing Simpkin, appearing in Robert Cox's Actaeon and Diana
(1656), is unquestionably the KEMP jig of the soldier, miser, and Sym
the clown (Appendix A). In this text, the miser is called "Old Man." I
do not believe that this departure from the nomenclature in the
registered jig interferes with the identifcation of the piece. As
Baskervill suggests, the loss or change of a stanza in the transmission
of the text may have obscured the point. A hint of the miser in the
husband of the jig is found in his threat to withhold Simpkin's pence
after purchasing wine if the latter abuses his wife. Moreover, it should
be pointed out, the characters in the jigs were stock types. In the
commedia dell'arte the "old man," Pantalone, was invariably penurious.
The commedia too may have left its mark on the jig.

 

In Singing Simpkin the wife hides one lover, Sim, at the approach of
another, the soldier. When her husband appears, she makes the soldier
leave, threatening an imaginary enemy, so that neither the soldier nor
the hidden Sim, when he is disclosed, arouses the husband's suspicion.
The lecherous Sim is the "star" part and was certainly taken by KEMP.
Hidden in the chest, he periodically pops out, like a jack-in-the-box,
to deliver a punchline capping a series of quatrains. He sings of
grafting horns on the husband's head. In the end he is the victim of a
beating. The chief features of the story come from Boccaccio's
Decameron, though its setting and tone is modified in Tarlton's News out
of Purgatory (1589). Since News is called in its title "Only such a jest
as his jig," Baskervill believes that the story had already appeared as
a jig when News was published, and that it passed from Tarlton's
repertoire to KEMP's. [40] It would be idle to argue with Baskervill's
conclusion.

 

Baskervill noted the appearance in the Low Countries and at Dresden of
certain singspiele, German adaptations of KEMP's jigs. This strengthens
my theory that KEMP did not rejoin Leicester from Denmark, but continued
on to Saxony with Pope, Bryan and the others. KEMP, then, was abroad for
about two years.

 

The fall of 1588 proved to be a time of momentous theatrical import. A
major reshuffling of personnel was brought about by two significant
deaths. Will KEMP and many other players were impacted. On September 4,
the Earl of Leicester died and, without a patron, the group seems to
have dissolved. While Chambers is predictably conservative on this
matter, I think that at this point KEMP, along with George Bryan, Thomas
Pope and Richard Burbage, joined the company of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord
Strange.

 

Henry Stanley, the fourth Earl of Derby, had maintained players for many
years. They first appear in the record as performing at court on
February 14, 1580. They also appeared there on January 1, 1581. After
that the record is silent. The Earl's son, Ferdinando, also kept
players. They appeared at court during the Christmas holidays of 1580,
1581, 1585, 1586, and 1587. In each one of these instances, however,
they are referred to as "Lord Strange's tumblers," and as performing
"feats of activity." John Symons appears to have been their leader.[41]
The inference must be that the Earl kept a company of actors, while
Ferdinando kept a group of acrobats. Strange's tumblers next appear at
court on February 16, 1591. Now their leader is George Attowell. This
man no doubt took over Symons's duties when Symons joined the Queen's
men. While Strange's men continue to appear in court records, no further
mention is made of tumbling. This, together with the fact that Derby's
actors seem to have vanished, suggests that Ferdinando had taken over
the responsibility for his father's actors while at the same time
continuing the management of his acrobats.

 

On the subject of Derby's men, Honigmann has built a very convincing
case for Shakespeare's early involvement with that company. I can here
only present a bare outline of his argument. In 1923 Chambers noted the
will of Alexander Houghton of Lea, Lancashire. Houghton bequeathed his
stock of play clothes and musical instruments to his brother Thomas, or,
if he did not choose to keep players, to Sir Thomas Hesketh, and added,
"And I most heartily require the said Sir Thomas to be friendly unto
Fulk Gyllome and William Shakeshafte now dwelling with me and either
take them unto his service or else help them to some good master, as my
trust is he will."[42] Chambers states "The linking with Sir Thomas
Hesketh seems to make it at least highly probable that Foke Gyllome and
William Shakeshafte were players."[43]

 

Honigmann believes that John Cottom, in 1579 the new headmaster of the
Stratford grammar school, and a man with strong Lancashire connections,
helped Shakespeare to a position with the Houghton family, possibly the
position of "country schoolmaster," an ancient Shakespeare tradition
which has refused to die. At Lancashire Shakespeare would have tutored
the children of Houghton's many servants. At the same time, Shakespeare
would also learn the acting craft from Houghton's players. Since the
Houghton musical instruments (embossed with the family crest) can be
traced to Rufford at an early date, it is evident that Thomas Houghton
did not wish to keep players, and that the instruments, play clothes,
and possibly Shakeshafte, passed to Thomas Hesketh, who resided at
there.[44]

 

In 1581, however, Hesketh was arrested as a "disaffected Papist" and
imprisoned. Shakeshafte, thus, cannot have been at Rufford for long. The
Heskeths were on intimate terms with the Stanleys, and it is logical to
suppose that Shakeshafte, with useful histrionic skills, next became a
servant of the Earl of Derby. If Shakespeare was using, for reasons
which can only be guessed at, a variant of his name--his grandfather had
used several such variants--the issue of Shakespeare's "lost years" has
been resolved. If so, Shakespeare may have been bound to Alexander
Houghton at about age 15. It may well be that Shakespeare made his first
appearance at court as a player on December 30, 1581 as a Derby's man at
age 17.

 

Samuel Schoenbaum will have none of the Shakeshafte theory. He argues
that a bequest of L2 would be far too high for a youth of seventeen,
particularly when Houghton's youngest legatees received only 13s.4d.
each.[45] But if Shakeshafte performed multiple tasks, and was well
liked, he can surely have received more than the usual bequest. In any
case, I do not think that Schoenbaum is entitled to say what an
Elizabethan may or may not bequeath.

 

What is so alluring about Honigmann's conjecture is that it makes
perfect sense, even to the extent of admitting most of the traditions:
that Shakespeare was withdrawn from school at an early age; was a
country schoomaster; began his theatrical career in a menial position,
taking care of the horses of gentlemen who came to the play. His alleged
deer-stealing may account for the alias and relocation one hundred and
thirty miles from Stratford. An alternative, and more compelling, reason
for the alias may have been the family embarrassment engendered by John
Shakespeare's indictments for usury and illegal wool-dealing, and
subsequent, sharp financial decline. Here, too, we may believe, are the
reasons for John Shakespeare's decade-long absence from the Stratford
town meetings.

 

On May 3 in the plague year of 1593, a special travelling warrant for
Strange's men which included KEMP, Bryan and Pope was issued by the
Privy Council. Though the warrant follows the break-up of Leicester's
men by five years, these men must have been associated for quite some
time. At any rate, they knew each other well. Common sense tells us that
they had to have gone somewhere, and Strange's men, where they are next
found, is the logical place to look for them.

 

The gap can be narrowed to three years by the dating of Romeo and Juliet
in which KEMP appeared. In the first Quarto (as in the Folio version of
the play), the Nurse says, speaking of the time when Juliet was weaned:
"Tis since the earthquake now eleven years" (line 259). There was a
memorable earthquake in London on April 6, 1580, and "almost generally
throughout England," which according to Holinshed, "caused such an
amazedness among the people as was wonderful for the time and caused
them to make their prayers to Almighty God." This puts the production in
1591. The argument for this date is best stated by Albert Feuillerat:

 

The critics who would have it that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in
1595 or 1596 refuse to admit the validity of the allusion; this, they
say, is giving the accuracy of the Nurse an improbable value. But it is
the author, not the Nurse, who, by recalling such an event, introduced a
realistic note into the action and thus tried to awake in the audience a
remembrance of their own experience.[46]

 

At the time of the earthquake, Shakespeare was not quite sixteen. It
certainly made an lasting impression on him.

 

KEMP was thus a member of Strange's men prior to 1591. So were
Shakespeare, Pope, Bryan and Burbage. Strange's men performed at court
on December 26 and 27, 1591. They were also there on January 9, February
6 and 8.[47] Did they perform their latest play, Romeo and Juliet on one
of these occasions?

 

Given the need to be affiliated with a protector (as I believe these
pages will abundantly make clear), actors were not as mobile as some
have supposed. One could only move to another company if there was an
opening. Part-time actors, known as "hired men," knew a trade they could
fall back on--exactly as today--if there was no acting work to be had.
The tendency was to stay put unless a better opportunity came along.
William Ecclestone, a boy actor in Shakespeare's company in 1588,
advanced to adult roles long before 1610, when he was still
performing--twenty-two years later--with the same fellowship.[48]

 

The tendency to stay put also weighs in favor of a 1588 amalgamation.
Named in the travelling warrant, additionally, were Edward Alleyn,
Augustine Phillips and John Heminges. Heminges must have left the
Queen's just before that group splintered upon the second important
death, that of Richard Tarlton, also in the fall of 1588. Heminges is
not named in a list of the Queen's players dated June 30, 1588. By that
date, possibly, Tarlton was already incapacitated; Heminges may have
seen the writing on the wall and left.

 

This temporary company was an all-star group and KEMP was its main comic
attraction. By 1590 KEMP had already been hailed in print and was viewed
as the successor to Tarlton. Nashe dedicated An Almond for a Parrot "To
that most comical and conceited [i.e., witty] Cavaliere Monsieur du
KEMP, Jestmonger and Vice-Gerent [deputy] General to the Ghost of Dick
Tarlton."

 

Insertions in the Quarto and Folio texts of the names of the actors
instead of the parts that they performed give us some information about
the casting of Shakespeare's plays. In this way we know that KEMP played
the servant, Peter, in Romeo and Juliet.

 

We learn from the (I>Diary of Philip Henslowe that in June of 1592, Lord
Strange's men were acting in combination with Edward Alleyn and his
company, the Lord Admiral's men, at the Rose theatre. Strange's men, in
fact, may have been associated with the Admiral's for two years or more.
A major outbreak of the plague had necessitated another realignment of
personnel. Since KEMP was involved with Henslowe for at least two
periods in his career, something should be said about that interesting
individual.

 

Phillip Henslowe (?-1616) was a producer who, unlike most theatre people
of his time, was never an actor. He was by trade a dyer. Henslowe
derives his importance in the history of the Elizabethan stage from
being the owner of the Rose, Hope and Fortune playhouses. His
stepdaughter Joan Woodward married Edward Alleyn, who on his
father-in-law's death inherited his property and papers, the latter now
being housed at Dulwich College. Among them is Henslowe's 'diary' in
which he entered accounts for his various theatres, records of
performances, loans made to actors, payments to dramatists, and various
private memoranda. Since some of the actors in the companies which used
his theatres were contracted to Henslowe personally, and not, as KEMP
was to his fellow actors, and as he paid the dramatists for their work,
it follows that he had a decisive say in the choice of play and method
of presentation. That his relations with his actors were not always
cordial is proved by Articles of Grievance and Articles of Oppression
against Mr. Hinchlowe, drawn up in 1615. In these documents Henslowe is
accused of embezzling their money and unlawfully retaining their
property. We have no information as to how the controversy ended, but it
is apparent that Henslowe kept actors and dramatists in his debt in
order to retain his hold over them. This arrangement did not make for
much stability.[49]

 

Henslowe's Diary is the single most important document we possess for
the study of Tudor theatre history. I had occasionally thought, given
Henslowe's bizarre spellings (albere galles for Archigallo), that the
impressario was hard of hearing. I also thought it strange that a host
of other individuals including Wilson, Dekker, Chapman, Day and
Haughton, should write in his private book--perhaps his vision was none
too good either. Some critics have gone so far as to suggest that he was
illiterate. When I actually came to look up some facts in the Diary, my
suspicions about Henslowe's health were confirmed. In black and white
are a number of pharmaceutical recipes, including cures for deafness,
blindness, pleurisy and other maladies. Henslowe must have had multiple
infirmities. It will be entertaining to look at one of his prescriptions
for deafness: "ffrie earthwormes with goosegreasse then strain the same
& drope a lytell therof into the deaf & payned eares warminge the same &
so usse yt hallfe a dossen times at the least a trewe medison."[50]

 

On June 19, 1592, Henslowe tells us, the combined forces of Strange's
men and the Admiral's men presented the play A Knack to Know a Knave.
KEMP, we know from the published version, essayed the role of the
Cobbler.

 

On September 25, 1593, Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, succeeded his
father as the fifth Early of Derby, and KEMP's company became known as
Derby's men. This monicker held for less than six months, for on April
16, 1594, Ferdinando died, possibly poisoned in a political
assassination. His players came under the brief, one could confidently
say emergency, protection of Strange's widow, Alice, Countess of Derby.
On May 16 there is a record at Winchester stating, "...there shall be
given in reward by the Chamberlain of the City unto the players of the
Countess of Derby vis viiid."[51] But by June 5th Derby's men had been
reconstituted under the patronage of Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain.
The list of principals in this company included KEMP, Pope, Bryan,
Heminges, Phillips, Burbage, and an actor/dramatist of some repute,
William Shakespeare.[52]

 

From June 5 to June 15 KEMP brought his clowning to Newington Butts
where the Chamberlain's men were playing a repertory which included
Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew and an early version of
Hamlet.[53] In those plays, respectively, KEMP played the Clown, Grumio,
and the First Gravedigger. The playhouse at Newington Butts in Surrey,
it may be noted in passing, was the least desirable of all the theatres
because it was located more than a mile from the Thames. The actors
certainly would not have used it during winter seasons.

 

During the Christmas festivities of 1594, KEMP, along with Burbage and
Shakespeare, accepted payment on behalf of the Chamberlain's men for
performances given for the Queen at Greenwich on December 26 and 27.[54]
They may have performed one of the plays shown at Newington Butts during
the previous summer or a new play prepared in the fall. The big play of
the year for the Chamberlain's was The Merchant of Venice, in which KEMP
played Shylock's clownish servant Launcelot Gobbo. The production of the
play had been inspired by the trial and execution of the Queen's
physician Roderigo Lopez. Lopez, a Jew, had been convicted on charges
evidently trumped up by Essex. The Admiral's men had immediately revived
their old Marlowe success The Jew of Malta and performed it fifteen
times throughout 1594. It is thought that the Chamberlain's men, ever
sensitive to competition, had Shakespeare revise another successful old
play, The Jew of Venice.[55]

 

When Henry Carey died in 1596, his players came under the protection of
his son, George Carey, Lord Hunsdon. For a time, KEMP's company was
known as Hunsdon's men. Now was published the first Quarto of Romeo and
Juliet, "As it hath been often with great applause plaid publiquely, by
the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Servants." When on March 17,
1597, George Carey rose to the office of Lord Chamberlain, the company
was again rechristened, after him, the Lord Chamberlain's men.[56] For
the balance of KEMP's tenure, his company would know no other name,
though after the accession of James I in 1603, it became the King's men.

 

In 1600 the Quarto version of Much Ado About Nothing was published.
There are good reasons for believing that the play was performed in
1598, so some scholars have placed the production of the play in that
year. There is a German drama, Die Schone Phaenicia, by Jacob Ayrer,
with a similiar plot and concerned with the King of Aragon, and Lionato,
an old nobleman. The probability is that Ayrer's play and Shakespeare's
both derive from a common source. A play Panecia was acted on New Year's
Day, 1574, by the Earl of Leicester's men before the Queen. According to
Dover Wilson, in the jumbled spelling of the offical account, "panecia"
likely represents "Fenecia," the Hero character of Bandello's original
story.[57] This play may very well be one of the manuscripts brought by
the former Leicester's men to the company of Lord Strange later revised
by Shakespeare.

 

In the same way we know that KEMP played Peter in Romeo and Juliet, we
know he played Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing -- his name instead of
the character's appears in the Quarto text (IV, ii), a prompter's note.
Also in 1598 KEMP was in the cast of Ben Jonson's Every Man in His
Humour as we learn from the Jonson Folio of 1616. In the Quarto version,
the play has an Italian setting. Jonson later revised it with an English
setting, altering the characters' names appropriately. Oliver Cob is the
type of comic tradesman that was KEMP's specialty. Jonson, as well as
Shakespeare when he wrote, knew who was going to be playing the parts,
and he designed Cob for KEMP.

 

The Theatre was built on land for which James Burbage had taken a
twenty-one year lease. He had an option to renew this lease, but Giles
Allen, owner of the land, ultimately reneged on the agreement. The
Chamberlain's men were forced to relocate. In a brilliant stroke,
Burbage decided to create a permanent indoor theatre. For this purpose
he purchased the three stories of the Parliament Chambers in one of the
Blackfriars buildings. The purchase was executed on February 4, 1596 at
a cost of six hundred pounds.[58] The plan was a bold one. For the first
time a company of adult actors would have a playhouse within the city
walls, playing in a private playhouse, in one of the most fashionable
districts in London. They would be able to charge high entrance fees
thereby excluding the rabble.

 

In November of that year, however, certain residents of Blackfriars
brought a petition to the Privy Council against the establishment of the
theatre in their bailiwick. They cited "great annoyance and trouble...by
reason...of all manner of vagrant and lewd persons that...will come
thither and work all manner of mischief," among other trepidations. A
counter petition was presented by KEMP, Pope, Burbage, Heminges,
Phillips, Shakespeare, William Sly, and Nicholas Tooley. This petition
was not successful. It would be fourteen years before the Blackfriars
dream was finally realized. The great cost of the property, added to an
existing load of debt and lawsuits, must have all but destroyed James
Burbage. He died just two months before expiration of the Theatre's
ground lease.[59]

 

A solution to the problem with The Theatre, however, was finally arrived
at. The Chamberlain's men decided to build a new open-air playhouse. A
location was found in Southwark across the Thames, a parcel of land
owned by Nicholas Brend. KEMP was one of seven men, six of them
Chamberlain's actors, who formed a consortium for the construction of
the Globe. We learn from the lease on this property, that the Globe was
financed by a syndicate comprised of Richard Burbage, his brother,
Cuthbert, Shakespeare, Heminges, Phillips, Pope and KEMP--a unique
concept in the annals of the English theatre.[60] The Burbages would
hold a half-interest in the new building, inasmuch as they were
providing materials--the framework and whatever else could be
salvaged--from the dismantled Theatre. The other five actors would hold
the remaining half-interest, making KEMP's share one-tenth of the total.
The cost of erecting the Globe was about four hundred pounds.[61] If the
Burbages paid two hundred, the other five actors must have contributed
forty pounds each.

 

The ground lease was drawn up on Christmas Day, 1598, and signed on
February 21, 1599. No copy of the original lease has come to light. But
a certified transcript, entered in the course of litigation in 1616
between Thomasine Ostler and her father, John Heminges, was discovered
by C. W. Wallace in 1909. In this document we find surprising
information: "the said defendents do say that about time of the building
of the said playhouse...[the] part of the said William KEMP, did come
unto the said Augustine Phillips [et al.] by grant or assignment."[62]
For some reason, many have thought artistic differences, KEMP left the
Chamberlain's men not long after the syndicate was formed. KEMP's share
in the Globe was distributed in four equal parts, raising his former
associates' share to one-eighth each.

 

It is well known that KEMP's successor was Robert Armin, though it is
not so well known that Armin was trained as a clown (we learn from
Tarlton's Jests), by Tarlton himself. With the departure of KEMP, the
development of the Shakespearean clown would be forever altered. KEMP's
bawdy lout would be replaced by a new, soft-edged clown, Shakespeare
capitalizing on Armin's subtlety, intellectualism, and vein of
melancholy. Armin would create Touchstone, Feste, and Lear's Fool. KEMP
would never have been cast in those parts.

 

It is reasonable to wonder how KEMP occupied himself during the
following year. Unfortunately, the record temporarily fails us. If he
had the forty pounds from his share of the Globe, he would not have been
hard pressed for ready cash. Jigmaking, his old stand-by, would likely
be in demand. It is clear, however, that by autumn he had teamed up with
the company of Lord Chandos.

 

On September 21, 1599, Thomas Platter, a Swiss traveller, witnessed a
performance of Julius Caesar at the Globe and noted it in his diary. He
also noted:

 

On another occasion not far from our inn, in the suburb of Bishopsgate,
if I remember, also after lunch, I beheld a play in which they presented
diverse nations and an Englishman struggling together for a maiden; he
overcame them all except the German who won the girl in a tussle, and
then sat down by her side, when he and his servant drank themselves
tipsy, so that they were both befuddled and the servant proceeded to
hurl his shoe at his master's head, whereupon they both fell asleep.[63]

 

We may forgive Platter a slight error, for Shoreditch was but a
continuation of Bishopsgate street. Yet the theatre he attended was
undoubtedly the Curtain, the Theatre having been torn down the previous
year. Lord Chandos's men occupied the premises when Shakespeare's
company moved to the Globe. Robert Armin was a member of this
troupe.[64] But would it be surprising to learn that the servant
character who hurled his shoe at his master's head was none other than
our old friend Will KEMP? There can be no doubt about this. Word of
KEMP's latest outrageous stage antic must have spread like wildfire, for
Ben Jonson inserted a record of the event into Everyman Out of His
Humour, now on the boards at the Globe. In this play, Carlo Buffone
exclaims to Puntarvolo, "Would I had one of KEMP's shoes to throw after
you" (IV, V). So KEMP, in the fall of 1599, was appearing at the Curtain
with Chandos's men, in the same plays with Robert Armin.

 

Records of performances during this period allow us to make certain
generalizations about the movements of the players. In winter, when
travel was inconvenient, performances were held in the city at innyards
such as the Cross Keys and the Bull. During summers the outlying
theatres, the Theatre and Curtain in Shoreditch and the Rose and
Newington Butts across the Thames, were utilized. The autumn months were
reserved for provincial and, ocasionally, continental touring. The
players would be back in London, ready to show new but tested works to
the Queen during the Christmas and New Year's festivities. There were
exceptions to this schedule due to outbreaks of plague and prohibitions
against playing. The players usually responded to these difficulties by
touring, a wearying and not very profitable operation. Touring would
bring increased work, fewer receipts, and higher expenses. Still,
touring was essential to the players' survival.

 

KEMP and Chandos's men may have embarked on a European tour after a
short season at the Curtain. A Chronicle of the city of Munster gives
the following information:

 

On the 26th of November 1599 there arrived here eleven Englishmen, all
young and lively fellows, with the exception of one, a rather elderly
man, who had every- thing under his management. They acted on five
successive days five different comedies in their own English Tongue.
They carried with them various musical instruments, such as lutes,
cithern, fiddles, fifes, and such like; they danced many new and foreign
dances (not usual in this country) at the beginning and at the end of
their comedies. They were accompanied by a clown, who, when a new act
had to commence and when they had to change their costume, made many
antics and pranks in German during the performance, by which he amused
the audience.[65]

 

Professor Wiles plays fast and loose with this record. First, he omits
the date and places the event in 1601 which is plainly (to say the
least) innacurate. Second, in a non-sequitur, he says since the clown
entertained in German, "This would seem to confirm that the clown was
the organizer of the tour."[66] The "elderly" actor, not the clown, was
the obvious organizer of the tour. Rochell, the writer of the record,
consistently uses the word "they" to refer to the eleven players. He
notes that "they" were accompanied by a clown, a twelfth player, showing
that the clown was a new addition and therefore not a regular member of
the company. These facts build a case for KEMP's involvement. As we have
seen, his was often a solo act, and he no doubt picked up some German on
his earlier tour of Saxony.

 

In February-March 1600, KEMP attracted nationwide attention by dancing a
morris from London to Norwich, a distance of one hundred and fourteen
miles. This was a remarkable feat for a man at least forty-five years
old, especially in a time when people aged more rapidly than today. KEMP
conceived the event as a profit-making venture and accepted numerous
wagers on the outcome. The morris would become the object of broadside
satire, for in April 1600 KEMP published an account of the exploit "to
satisfy his friends the truth against all lying ballad-makers." KEMP's
Nine Days' Wonder reveals him first and foremost as the center of his
universe.

 

There are many contemporary allusions to KEMP's morris. Dudley Carleton
wrote to John Chamberlain on October 13, 1600, that on his way from
Witham to Englefield:

 

...we met a company of mad wenches, whereof Mrs. Mary Wroughton and
young Stafford were ringleaders, who travelled from house to house, and
to some places where they were little known, attended with a concert of
musicians, as if they had undertaken the like adventure as KEMP did from
London to Norwich."[67]

 

In Jack Drum's Entertainment (1601), a character remarks: "I had rather
that KEMP's Morris were their chat" (I, 45).[68] KEMP's long-distance
dance created so much notoriety that it was still fresh in people's
minds years later. In Webster's, Westward Ho (1607), Linstock says:
"S'foot, we'll dance to Norwich" (V, I).[69] In 1609 William Rowley
wrote in his tract A Search for Money, "Ye have been either ear or
eye-witnesses or both to many mad voyages made of late years, both by
sea and land, as the travel to Rome with the return in certain days, the
wild Morris to Norwich..."[70] Jonson could not forget it, for in his
Epigrams, 1616, he has, "Did dance the famous Morris unto Norwich."[71]
It is doubtful that KEMP raised any money from the morris. In Fair Maid
of the Inn, Fletcher implies that he lost money: "He did measure the
stars with a false yard, and may now travel to Rome with a mortar on's
head to see if he can recover his money that way."[72] This is a direct
reference to KEMP's Nine Days' Wonder dedication in which he says: "I
could fly to Rome (at least hop to Rome, as the old proverb is) with a
mortar on my head."

 

In a reprimand to the ballad-makers, KEMP announced a morris even more
audacious than the one to Norwich, requesting them:

 

...to pity his pains in the great journey he pretends [intends], and not
fill the country with lies of his never done acts, as they did in his
late Morris to Norwich....I would wish ye, employ not your little wits
in certifying the world that I am gone to Rome, Jerusalem, Venice, or
any other place at your idle appoint.

 

KEMP undertook this journey sometime after the publication of Nine Days'
Wonder in the spring of 1600. His hope for profit is recorded in a
popular song (T. Weelkes, Ayres or Fantasticke Spirites 1608):

 

Since Robin Hood, Maid Marian,
And Little John are gone-a,
The hobby-horse was quite forgot,
When KEMP did dance alone-a.
He did labor after the tabor
For to dance: then into France
He took pains
To skip it;
In hope of gains
He will trip it,
On the toe,
Diddle, diddle, doe.[73]

 

Another popular song found in Roxburghe Ballads (1873), anticipated a
triumphant return:

 

Diana and her darlings dear,
The Dutchman, ply the double beer,
Boys rings the bells and make good cheer--
When KEMP returns from Rome![74]

 

KEMP visited Germany and Italy and had returned to England by September
2, 1601, as evidenced by an entry in the diary of a certain William
Smith of Abingdon:

 

Sep. 2. KEMP, mimus quidam, qui peregrinationem quandam in Germaniam at
Italiam instituerat, post multos errores, et infortunia sua, reversus:
multa refert de Anthonio Sherley, equite aurato, quem Romae (legatum
Persicum agentem) convenerat.[75]

 

There is no evidence that the journey added any cubits to KEMP's
reputation or brought him financial reward. The escapade, it must be
concluded, was a failure.

 

KEMP's meeting in Italy with Sir Anthony Shirley (transposed to Venice),
was dramatized some years later, probably after his death, in The
Travels of The Three English Brothers.[76] This work was the joint
production of John Day, William Rowley and George Wilkins. The play was
performed by the new Queen's men and published in 1607. Since the
authors were undoubtedly familiar with KEMP's clowning, the scene of the
meeting with Shirley is valuable for its point of view. Sir Anthony is
on stage:

 

Enter a servant

 

Servant. Sir, here's an Englishman desires to see you.
Sir Anthony. An Englishman? what's his name?
Servant. He calls himself KEMP.
Sir Anthony. KEMP! bid him come in.

 

Exit Servant, enter KEMP

 

Sir Anthony Welcome, honest Will!; and how doth all thy fellows in
England?
KEMP. Why, like good fellows, when they have no money, live upon credit.
Sir Anthony. And what good new plays have you?
KEMP. Many idle toys; but the old play that Adam and Eve acted in bare
action under the fig tree draws most of the gentlemen.
Sir Anthony. Jesting, Will.
KEMP. In good earnest it doth, sir.
Sir Anthony. I partly credit thee; but what play of note have you?
KEMP. Many of name, some of note; especially one, the name was called
England's Joy; Marry, he was no poet that wrote it, he drew more conies
in a purse-net, than ever were taken at any draught about London.

 

Enter Servant

 

Servant. Sir, here's an Italian Harelquin come to offer a play to your
Lordship.
Sir Anthony. We willingly accept it.

 

Exit Servant

 

Sir Anthony Hark, KEMP: because I like thy gesture and thy mirth, let me
request thee play a part with them.

 

Enter Harlequin and Wife

 

KEMP. I am somewhat hard of study, and like your honor, but if they well
invent any extemporal merriment, I'll put out the small sack of wit I
ha' left in venture with them.
Sir Anthony. They shall not deny't. Signior Harlequin, he is content. I
pray thee question him.

 

Harlequin and KEMP whisper

 

KEMP. Now, Signior, how many are you in company?
Harlequin. None but my wife and myself, sir.
KEMP. Your wife! why, hark you; will your wife do tricks in public?
Harlequin. My wife can play.
KEMP. The honest woman, I make no question; but how if we cast a whore's
part or a courtesan?
Harlequin. Oh, my wife is excellent at that; she's practiced it ever
since I married her, 'tis her only practice.
KEMP. But, by your leave, and she were my wife, I had rather keep her
out of practice a great deal.
Sir Anthony. Yet since 'tis the custom of the country, prithee make one,
conclude upon the project: we neither look for scholarship nor art, but
harmless mirth, for that's thy usual part.
KEMP. You shall find me no turn-coat.

 

Exit Sir Anthony

 

KEMP But the project, come; and then to the casting of the parts.
Harlequin. Marry, sir, first we will have an old Pantaloon.
KEMP. Some jealous coxcomb.
Harlequin. Right, and that part will I play.
KEMP. The jealous coxcomb?
Harlequin. I ha' played that part--
KEMP. Since your wife played the courtesan.
Harlequin. True, and a great while afore: then I must have a peasant to
my man, and he must keep my wife.
KEMP. Your man, and a peasant, keep your wife! I have known a gentleman
keep a peasant's wife, but 'tis not usual for a peasant to keep his
master's wife.
Harlequin. Oh, 'tis common in our country.
KEMP. And I'll maintain the custom of the country.

 

KEMP offers to kiss Wife

 

Harlequin. What do you mean, sir?
KEMP. Why, to rehearse my part on your wife's lips: we are fellows, and
amongst friends and fellows, you know, all things are common.
Harlequin. But she shall be no common thing, if I can keep her several:
then, sir, we must have an Amorado that must make me cornuto.
KEMP. Oh, for love sake let me play that part!
Harlequin. No, ye must play my man's part, and keep my wife.
KEMP. Right; and who so fit to make a man a cuckold, as he that keeps
his wife?
Harlequin. You shall not play that part.
KEMP. What say you to my boy?
Harlequin. Aye, he may play it, and you will.
KEMP>/I>. But he cannot make you jealous enough?
Harlequin. Tush, I warrant you, I can be jealous for nothing.
KEMP. You should not be a true Italian else.
Harlequin<. Then we must have a Magnifico that must take up the matter
betwixt me and my wife.
KEMP. Any thing of yours, but I'll take up nothing of your wife's.
Harlequin. I wish not you should: but come, now am I your master.
KEMP. Right, and I your servant.
Harlequin. Lead the way then.
KEMP. No, I ha' more manners than so: in our country 'tis the custom of
the master to go in before his wife, and the man to follow the master.
Harlequin. In--
KEMP. To his mistress.
Harlequin. Ye are in the right--
KEMP. Way to cuckolds-haven; Saint Luke be your speed!

 

Exeunt

 

Of particular note, "KEMP" tells Sir Anthony that he is "hard of study."
Evidently, KEMP had trouble learning and, possibly, remembering lines.

 

KEMP's European excursion is also mentioned in the Cambridge University
play The Return from Parnassus: Or the Scourge of Simony, the third part
of the trilogy. The play was performed by the students of St. John's
College. Scholars believe that it may have been written by one of them,
but the trilogy looks as if it were written by a professional. The play
was published in 1606. It give us a little more information about KEMP's
artistic mannerisms and style. Two students come to audition for the
Chamberlain's company.

 

Enter Burbage and KEMP

 

Burbage. Now, Will KEMP, if we can entertain these scholars at a low
rate, it will be well; they have oftentimes a good conceit in a part.
KEMP. It's true, indeed, honest Dick; but the slaves are somewhat proud,
and, besides, it is a good sport, in a part to see them never speak in
their walk but at the end of the stage, just as though in walking with a
fellow we should never speak but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a
man can go no further. I was once at a comedy in Cambridge, and there I
saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all sorts on this fashion.
Burbage. A little teaching will mend these faults, and it may be,
besides, they will be able to pen a part.
KEMP. Few of the university pen plays well; they smell to much of that
writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talk too much of
Proserpina and Jupiter. Why, here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all
down, aye, and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow!
he brought up Horace giving the Poets a pill; but our fellow Shakespeare
hath given him a purge that made him bewray [betray] his credit.
Burbage. It's a shrewd fellow indeed. I wonder these scholars stay so
long; they appointed to be here presently that we might try [audition]
them: oh, here they come.

 

Enter Philomusus and Studioso

 

Studioso.
Take heart, these lets our clouded
thoughts refine;
The sun shines brightest when it gins decline.
Burbage. Master Philomusus and Master Studioso, God save you.
KEMP. Master Pill and Master Otioso, well met.
Philomusus. The same to you, good Master Burbage. What, Master KEMP, how
doth the Emperor of Germany?
Studioso. God save you, Master KEMP; welcome Master KEMP, from dancing
the Morris over the Alps.
KEMP. Well, you merry knaves, you may come to the honor of it one day:
is it not better to make a fool of the world as I have done, than to be
fooled of the world as you scholars are? But be merry, my lads: you have
happened upon the most excellent vocation in the world for money; they
come north and south to bring it to our playhouse; and for honors, who
of more report than Dick Burbage and Will KEMP? he is not counted a
gentleman that knows not Dick Burbage and Will KEMP; there's not a
country wench that can dance Sellenger's Round but can talk of Dick
Burbage and Will KEMP.
Philomusus. Indeed, Master KEMP, you are very famous, but that is as
well for works in print as your part in cue.
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with size cue, and be lusty humorous
poets; you must untrusle: I rode this my last circuit purposely, because
I would be judge of your actions.
Burbage. Master Studioso, I pray you take some part in this book, and
act it, that I may see what will fit you best. I think your voice would
serve for Hieronimo: observe how I act it, and then imitate me.
Studioso. "Who call[s] Hieronimo from his naked bed, And," etc.
Burbage. You will do well after a while.
KEMP. Now for you, me thinks you should belong to my tuition, and your
face me thinks would be good for a foolish mayor or a foolish justice of
peace. Mark me. "Forasmuch as there be two states of a commonwealth, the
one peace, the other tranquility; two states of war, the one of discord,
the other of dissention; two states of incorporation, the one of
Aldermen, the other of Brethren; two states of magistrates, the one of
governing, the other of bearing rule; now, as I said even now, for a
good thing cannot be said too often, Virtue is the shoeing-horn of
justice, that is, virtue is the shoeing-horn of doing justly, it
behooveth me and is my part to commend this shoeing-horn unto you. I
hope this word shoeing-horn doth not offend any of you, my worshipful
brethren, for you, being the worshipful headsmen of the town, know well
what the horn meaneth. Now therefore I am determined not only to teach
but also to instruct, not only the ignorant but also the simple, not
only what is their duty towards their betters, but also what is their
duty towards their superiors". Come, let me see how you can do; sit down
in the chair.
Philomusus. "Forasmuch as there be," etc.
KEMP. Thou wilt do well in time, if thou wilt be ruled by thy betters,
that is by myself, and such grave Aldermen of the playhouse as I am.
Burbage. I like your face and the proportion of your body for Richard
the Third; I pray, Master Philomusus, let me see you act a little of it.
Philomusus.
"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by the sun of York."
Burbage. Very well, I assure you. Well, Master Philomusus and Master
Studioso, we see what ability you are of: I pray walk with us to our
fellows, and we'll agree presently.
KEMP. It's good manners to follow us, Master Pill and Master Otioso.
(IV, v)

 

KEMP is no doubt satirized as well as represented in this piece. He must
be the actor who is accused of making faces--what is known in the
theatre as mugging.

 

In The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, the first play of the trilogy, KEMP's
portrait is painted more obliquely. Still, it gives us another account
of his method of amusing.

 

Enter Dromo, drawing a clown with a rope

 

Clown. What now? thrust a man into the commonwealth whether he will or
no? what the devil should I do here?
Dromo. Why, what an ass art thou! dost thou not know a play cannot be
without a clown? Clowns have been thrust into plays by head and
shoulders ever since KEMP could make a scurvy face; and therefore reason
thou shouldst be drawn in with a cart-rope.
Clown. But what must I do now?
Dromo. Why, if thou canst but draw thy mouth awry, lay thy leg over thy
staff, saw a piece of cheese asunder with thy dagger, lap up drink on
the earth, I warrant thee they'll laugh mightily. Well, I'll turn thee
loose to them; either say somewhat for thyself, or hang and be non plus.
Clown. This is fine i'faith! now, when they have nobody to leave on the
stage, they bring me up, and, which is worse, tell me not what I should
say! Gentles, I dare say you look for a fit of mirth. I'll therefore
present unto you a proper new love-letter of mine to the tune of Put on
the smock o' Monday, which in the heat of my charity I penned; and thus
it begins: "O my lovely Nigra, pity the pain of my liver! That little
gallows Cupid hath lately pricked me in the breech with his great pin,
and almost killed me, thy woodcock, with his birdbolt. Thou hast a
pretty furrowed forhead, a fine lecherous eye; methinks I see the bawd
Venus keeping a bawdy house in thy looks, Cupid standing like a pandar
at the door of thy lips." How like you, masters? has any young man a
desire to copy this, that he may have formam epistolae conscribendae?
Now if I could but make a fine scurvy face, I were a king! O nature, why
didst thou give me so good a look?
Dromo. Give us a voider here for the fool! Sirrah, you must begone; here
are other men that will supply the room.
Clown. Why, shall I not whistle out my whistle? Then farewell, gentle
auditors, and the next time you see me I'll make you better sport.[41]

 

Dromo drags a clown on stage be means of a rope. There cannot be a play
without a clown, he tells us. The audience no doubt felt the same way.
At a play, the patrons must have always had the expectation of savoring
the antics of the low comedian. Dromo also suggests that a clown could
be "thrust into plays by head and shoulders." In a serious play, even if
no clown part was scripted, the company still had to cater to the demand
of the audience. In this situation, the actors would decide beforehand
at what point the clown would go out to perform. Secondly, a clown could
always be depended upon to cover a backstage emergency. If, for example,
a key prop were misplaced, the clown could take over while the prop was
hunted.

 

Dromo says that clowns were thrust on "ever since KEMP could make a
scurvy face." Here we have another reference to KEMP's mugging. The KEMP
character also refers to making a scurvy face. KEMP himself must have
done it frequently, never hesitating to get an easy laugh whenever
possible. Dromo refers to three of KEMP's non-verbal lazzi, or sight
gags: laying his leg over his staff; sawing a piece of cheese with a
dagger, and lapping up water from the earth. Shortly after Dromo has
left the stage, the clown decides he will entertain with the lazzo of
the Love Letter, standard Harlequin fare. The letter contains some
Latin, another feature of KEMP's verbal clowning.

 

KEMP's morris to Rome appears to have brought him few benefits, but the
dance may have served as an inspiration to one of his fellow countrymen.
Thomas Coryat, son of a Somerset clergyman, was a thirty-year-old
without a career. A contemporary description of him testified that he
had a head shaped like an inverted "sugar-loaf," and that he "carried
folly in his very face." In 1610 Coryat set off on a walk to Venice. In
five months he covered--all on foot--nineteen hundred and seventy-five
miles, and had seen forty-five cities. Like KEMP, Coryat wrote and
published an account of his travels in Crudities, 1611. He was assisted
in this by none other than Ben Jonson. The eight-hundred-page tome,
remarkable for its detail of observation, brought Coryat instant fame.
He later announced that he would trek to the Far East and, like Ulysses,
return after ten years. Unfortunately, he died about mid-way through his
campaign. Coryat is also remembered for introducing the fork in England.
He brought one of these Italian implements with him on his return from
Venice.[77]

 

NOTES
1. W. Hone, "Dissertation Upon the Morris Dance and Maid Marian," in J.
M. Gutch, ed., The Robin Hood Garlands and Ballads (London, 1850), 304.
2. David Wiles, Shakespeare's Clown, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987), 31.
3. H. S. D. Mithal, "Mr. KEMP called Don Gulielmo," Notes and Queries
(1960), 6-8.
4. E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930),
vol. 2, 28-9.
5. While Janet S. Loengard has capably and confidently argued that the
Red Lion, not the Theatre, was the first public playhouse (Shakespeare
Quarterly, 1983, no. 34, 298-310), any conclusion drawn from the
available facts remains open to debate. The Red Lion may well have been
exactly the same sort of enterprise as the Boar's Head, wherein a
theatre was built as an attachment to the existing building (cf. Herbert
Berry, The Boar's Head Playhouse).
6. E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1923), vol. 2, 393.
7. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage., vol. 4, 89.
8. Ibid.
9. S. T. Bindoff, Tudor England (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1950),
264-5.
10. R. C. Strong, and J. A. Van Dorsten, Leicester's Triumph (London:
Oxford University Press, 1964), 84-85.
11. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, op. cit., vol. 2, 88-89.
12. Ibid.
13. R. C. Bald, "Leicester's Men in the Low Countries," Review of
English Studies, 1943, 395-397.
14. Ibid., 396.
15. Gunnar Sjogren, "Thomas Bull and Other 'English Instrumentalists' in
Denmark in the 1580s," Shakespeare Survey 22, 1969, 119-123.
16. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., vol. 2, 90.
17. K. M. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy (New York: Russell & Russell,
1962), vol. 2, 406-7.
18. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, op. cit., vol. 1, 246.
19. Wiles, op. cit., 32.
20. Bald, op. cit., 396
21. John Bruce, "Who was 'Will, my lord of Leycester's jesting player',"
Shakespeare Society Papers, 1844, 89-90.
22. Sjogren, op. cit., 121.
23. T. W. Baldwin, The Organization and Personnel of the Shakespearean
Company (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1927), 244.
24. Sjogren, op. cit., 121.
25. Elizabeth Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester (New York: Coward-McCann,
1962).
26. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, op. cit., vol. 2, 91.
27. Thomas Nashe, Works, ed. R. B. McKerrow (London: A. H. Bullen,
1904), vol. 3, p. 341.
28. Wiles, op. cit., 95
29. P. L. Ducharte, The Italian Comedy, (New York: Dover, 1966), p. 177.
30. Lea, op. cit., 489.
31. Francis Douce, "A Dissertation on the Ancient English Morris Dance",
in J. M. Gutch, ed., The Robin Hood Garlands and Ballads, London, 1850,
p. 329-65.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Hone, op. cit., 314.
35. Hone, op. cit., 334.
36. The Return From Parnassus (Anon.), Part II, IV, v, in Macray, ed.,
The Pilgrimage to Parnassus (Oxford, 1886).
37. William KEMP, Nine Daies Wonder, ed. Alexander Dyce (London: The
Camden Society, 1840), p. xxi.
38. C. R. Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig and Related Song Drama
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929), 219-235.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Chambers, William Shaksspeare, op. cit., 54.
42. E. A. Honigmann, Shakespeare: the 'lost years' (Totowa: Barnes &
Noble, 1985), 3.
43. E. K. Chambers, William Shakeshafte in Shakespearean Gleanings
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1944), pp. 52-56
44. Honigmann, op. cit. 45. Samuel Schoenbaum, @U(William Shakespeare)
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 114-5
46. Albert Feuillerat, The Composition of Shakespeare's Plays (Freeport:
Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 300.
47. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., vol. II, 307
48. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., vol. II, 74-75
49. Phillip Henslowe, Diary ed. W. W. Greg (London: A. H. Bullen,
1904-08), vol. II.
50. Ibid.
51. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., vol. I, 47.
52. Ibid.
53. Henslowe, op. cit., vol. I, p. 17.
54. E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., 319.
55. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, in The New Shakespere,
ed. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936), 116-117.
56. Chambers, William Shakespeare, op. cit., 63-64.
57. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, in The New Shakespere,
ed. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936), 103-103.
58. Irwin Smith, Shakespeare's Blackfriar's Playhouse (New York, New
York University Press, 1964), 161-164.
59. Ibid., 172-173.
60. John Cranford Adams, The Globe Playhouse: Its Design and Equipment
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942), 12.
61. Irwin Smith, Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1956), 40.
62. Adams, op. cit., 12.
63. Thomas Platter, Platter's Travels in England, 1599, translated by
Clare Williams, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1937), 166.
64. T. W. Baldwin, "Shakespeare's Jester," Modern Language Notes,
December, 1924, 447-55.
65. Albert Cohn, Shakespeare in Germany (London, 1865), cxxxiv.
66. Wiles, op. cit., 38.
67. Edwin Nungezer, A Dictionary of Actors (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1929), 220.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. William KEMP, KEMPs Nine Daies Wonder, ed. Alexander Dyce, (London:
The Camden Society, 180), viii.
71. Nungezer, op. cit., 222.
72. Dyce, op. cit., 25.
73. J. O. Halliwell Ludus Coventrie (London: Shakespeare Society), 1841,
410.
74. Wiles, op. cit., 37.
75. Halliwell, op. cit., p. 410: KEMP, a certain mime, who had
undertaken a trip to Germany and Italy, after many mistakes and
reversals in his fortune: refers at length to Anthony Shirley, a knight
bestowed with a gold medal, whom he met in Rome through the aegis of the
Persian ambassador.
76. John Day, The Works of John Day, ed. A. H. Bullen, (London, 1881).
77. Theodore Spencer, "Thomas Coryat, An Elizabethan Crudity," The
Harvard Graduates' Magazine, March, 1932, 241-49.
78. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, op. cit., vol. 4, 326.
79. Wiles, op. cit., 38.
80. Nungezer, op. cit., 220.
81. W. Bridges-Adams, The Irresistible Theatre: Growth of the English
Stage (New York: Collier Books, 1961), 165.
82. Henslowe, op. cit.
83. Nungezer, op. cit., 190.
84. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, op. cit., vol. 2, 327.
85. Henslowe, op. cit., 179.
86. Dyce, op. cit., 8.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[neonpr...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, May 1, 2004 10:39:48 AM UTC-7, Art Neuendorffer wrote:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> So, Art, where are Oxford's plays? Did Oxford ever produce
> anything like a First Folio?
>
> Did Oxford ever own a traveling company?
>
> Did Oxford own any theaters like the Globe?
>
> This is a great post, I enjoyed getting an education
>
> on the Elizabethan stage.
>
>
> There's only one error, the author suggests that Leicester
> was not yet married to Elizabeth when he was involved
> with the Globe. They were married in 1561, the year
> that Elizabeth was very pregnant with the infant Bacon.

> <FONT face="Times New Ro...
> Show original