“Vpon Kempe and his morice, with his Epitaph.
“Welcome from Norwich, Kempe! all ioy to see
Thy safe returne moriscoed lustily.
But out, alasse, how soone’s thy morice done!
When Pipe and Taber, all thy friends be gone,
And leaue thee now to dance the second part
With feeble nature, not with nimble Art;
Then all thy triumphs fraught with strains of mirth
Shall be cag’d vp within a chest of earth:
Shall be? they are: th’ast danc’d thee out of breath,
And now must make thy parting dance with death.”[viii:3]
Towards the end of a Nine daies wonder, Kemp announces his intention of setting out shortly on a “great journey;”[ix:1] but as no record of this second feat has come down to us, we may conclude that it was never accomplished.[ix:2]
The date of his death has not been determined. Malone, in the uncertainty on this point, could only adduce the following passage of Dekker’s Guls Horne-booke, 1609, from which, he says, “it may be presumed”[ix:3] that Kemp was then deceased: “Tush, tush, Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer, nor all the litter of fooles that now come drawling behinde them, neuer plaid the Clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all.”[ix:4] George Chalmers, however, discovered an entry in the burial register of St. Saviour’s, Southwark—“1603, November 2d William Kempe, a man;”[ix:5] and since the name of Kemp does not occur in the license granted by King James, 19th May, 1603, to the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (who in consequence of that instrument were afterwards denominated his Majesty’s Servants) there is great probability that the said entry relates to the comedian, and that he had been carried off by the plague of that year.
Two scenes of two early dramas, which exhibit Kemp in propria persona, must necessarily form a portion of the present essay. The Retvrne from Pernassvs: Or The Scourge of Simony. Publiquely acted by the Students in Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge, 1606,[x:1] 4to. furnishes the first extract:
“Act 4. Scen. 5. [3.]
[Enter] Burbage [and] Kempe.
“Bur. Now, Will Kempe, if we can intertaine these schollers at a low rate, it wil be well; they haue oftentimes a good conceite in a part.
“Kempe. Its true indeed, honest Dick; but the slaues are somewhat proud, and, besides, it is a good sport, in a part to see them neuer speake in their walke but at the end of the stage, iust as though in walking with a fellow we should neuer speake but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can go no further. I was once at a Comedie in Cambridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all sorts on this fashion.
“Bur. A little teaching will mend these faults, and it may bee, besides, they will be able to pen a part.