3-060-945 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Title page from "Kemps nine daies wonder", 1600, (1884). '...performed in a daunce from London to Norwich. Containing the pleasure, paines and kinde entertainment of William Kemp betweene London and that Citty in his late Morrice. Wherein is somewhat set downe worth note; to reprooue [reprove] the flaunders spred of him: many things merry, nothing hurtfull. Written by himself to satisfie his friends'. William Kempe (c1560-c1603) was an English actor and dancer who specialised in comic roles. He was best known as one of the original stage actors in early dramas by Shakespeare. In February and March 1600, he undertook what he would later call his "Nine Days Wonder", in which he morris danced from London to Norwich, a distance of about 110 miles or 177 km, a journey which took him nine days (spread over several weeks), often amid cheering crowds.