“Kemp started at seven o’clock in the morning on the first Monday in Lent, the starting point being in front of the Lord Mayor’s house, and half London was astir to see the beginning of the great exploit. His suite consisted of his taborer, Thomas Sly; his servant, William Bee; and his overseer or umpire, George Sprat, who was to see that everything was performed according to promise. According to custom, he put out a sum of money before his departure on condition of receiving thrice the amount on his safe return. His own fatigues caused him many delays and he did not arrive in Norwich until twenty-three days after his departure. He spent only nine days in actual dancing on the road. Kemp himself on this occasion contributed nothing to the music except the sound of the bells, which were attached to his gaiters. In Norwich thousands waited to receive him in the open market-place with an official concert. Kemp, as guest of the town, was entertained at its expense and received handsome presents from the Mayor who arranged a triumphal entry for him. The freedom of the Merchant Adventures Company was also conferred upon him, thereby assuring him a share in the yearly income to the amount of forty shillings—a pension for life. The very buskins in which he had performed his dance were nailed to the wall in the Norwich Guild Hall and preserved in perpetual memory of the exploit, which was long remembered in popular literature. In an epilogue Kemp announced that he was shortly to set forward as merrily as I may; whither, I myself know not,” and begged ballad makers to abstain from disseminating lying statements about him. Kemp’s humble request to the impudent generation of ballad-makers, as he terms them, reads in part, “My notable Shake-rags, the effect of my suit is discovered in the title of my supplication, but for your better understanding for that I know you to be a sort of witless bettle-heads that can understand nothing but that is knocked into your scalp; so farewell and crosse me no more with thy rabble of bold rhymes lest at my return I set a crosse on thy forehead that all men may know that for a fool.” It seems certain that Kemp kept his word in exhibiting his dancing powers on the continent. In Week’s “Ayers” (1688) mention is made of Kemp’s skipping into France. A ballad entitled “An Excellent New Medley” (dated about 1600) refers to his return from Rome. In the Elizabethan play “Jack Drum’s Entertainment” (1616), however, there is introduced a song to which Kemp’s morris dance is performed. Heywood, writing at this period, in his “Apology for Actors” (1612), says William Kemp was a comic actor of high reputation, as well in the favor of Her Majesty as in the opinion of the general audience. There is also a tribute from the pen of Richard Rathway (1618). Ben Jonson, William Rowley and John Marston also make mention of him.