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قراءة كتاب Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
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Kemps Nine Daies Wonder Performed in a Daunce from London to Norwich
entered in the Stationers’ Booksxxii:3 to Rich. Jones, 7th January of the preceding year. The accounts of Henslowe shew that it was performed, not as a new piece, 10th June, 1592xxii:4; and there is no doubt that it was originally produced several years before that date. The name of its author has not been ascertained. That portion of it which the title-page distinguishes as “Kemps applauded Merrimentes of the men of Goteham” is comprehended in the following scene:
“Enter mad men of Goteham, to wit, a Miller, a Cobler, and a Smith.
“Miller. Now let vs constult among our selues how to misbehaue our selues to the Kings worship, Iesus blesse him! and when he comes, to deliuer him this peticion. I think the Smith were best to do it, for hees a wise man.
“Cobler. Naighbor, he shall not doe it as long as Jefferay the Translater is Maior of the towne.
“Smith. And why, I pray? because I would haue put you from the Mace?
“Miller. [Cobler.] No, not for that, but because he is no good fellow, nor he will not spend his pot for companie.
“Smith. Why, sir, there was a god of our occupation; and I charge you by vertue of his godhed to let me deliuer the petition.
“Cob. But soft you; your God was a Cuckold, and his Godhead was the horne; and thats the Armes of the Godhead you call vpon. Go, you are put down with your occupation; and now I wil not grace you so much as to deliuer the petition for you.
“Smith. What, dispraise our trade?
“Cob. Nay, neighbour, be not angrie, for Ile stand to nothing onlie but this.
“Smith. But what? bear witnesse a giues me the But, and I am not willing to shoot. Cobler, I will talke with you: nay, my bellowes, my coletrough, and my water shall enter armes with you for our trade. O neighbour, I can not beare it, nor I wil not beare it.
“Mil. Heare you, neighbour; I pray conswade yourself and be not wilful, and let the Cobler deliuer it; you shal see him mar all.
“Smith. At your request I will commit my selfe to you, and lay myselfe open to you lyke an Oyster.
“Mil. Ile tell him what you say. Heare you, naighbor: we haue constulted to let you deliuer the petition; doe it wisely for the credite of the towne.
“Cob. Let me alone; for the Kings Carminger was here, he sayes the King will be here anon.
“Smith. But heark, by the Mas he comes.
“Enter the King, Dunston, and Perin.
“King. How now, Perin, who haue we here?
“Cob.
Hearing your Grace would come this way,
Did thinke it good for you to stay—
But hear you, neighbours, bid somebody ring the bels—
And we are come to you alone,
To deliuer our petition.
“Kin. What is it, Perin? I pray thee reade.
“Per. Nothing but to haue a license to brew strong Ale thrise a week, and he that comes to Goteham and will not spende a penie on a pot of Ale if he be a drie, that he may fast.
“Kin. Well, sirs, we grant your petition.
“Cob. We humblie thanke your royall Maiesty.
“King. Come, Dunston, lets away.
Exeunt omnes.”xxiv:1
Like the pieces already noticed, “Kemps applauded Merrimentes of the men of Goteham” have been inserted in the catalogue of his “works.”xxiv:2 But surely the words of the title-page mean nothing more than ‘merriments in which Kemp had been applauded;’ and since it is not easy to imagine that the scene, as preserved in the printed copy, could have been received with any unusual degree of approbation even by the rudest audience, the probability is, that he enlivened his part,xxv:1 not only by his ever-welcome buffoonery, but also by sundry speeches of extemporal humour: see a passage in The Travailes of The three English Brothers, cited at p. xv. There can be no doubt that Kemp figured in other “merrimentes” besides those “of the men of Goteham,” though they have not descended to our times: “But,” says Nash to Gabriel Harvey, “by the meanes of his [Greene’s] death thou art depriued of the remedie in lawe which thou intendedst to haue had against him for calling thy Father Ropemaker. Mas, thats true, what Action will it beare? Nihil pro nihilo, none in law; what it will doe vpon the stage I cannot tell, for there a man maye make action besides his part, when he hath nothing at all to say: and if there, it is but a clownish action that it will beare; for what can bee made of a Ropemaker more than a Clowne? Will Kempe, I mistrust it will fall to thy lot for a merriment one of these dayes.” Strange Newes, Of the intercepting certaine Letters, &c. 1592.xxv:2
I have only to add, that the present edition of the Nine daies wonder exhibits faithfully the text of the original 4to, which is preserved in the Bodleian Library,xxvi:1 and which Gifford declared to be “a great curiosity, and, as a rude picture of national manners, extremely well worth reprinting.”xxvi:2
A. DYCE.