“Kemp was a very popular performer as early as 1589. We shall see hereafter that he, following the example of Tarlton, was in the habit of extemporizing and introducing matter of his own that has not come down to us. ‘Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them’ (Hamlet, Act. III, Scene II.). These words were aimed at Kemp, or one of his school, and it was about this date, according to Henslowe’s Diary, that Kemp went over from the Lord Chamberlain to the Lord Nottingham players. The most important duty of the clown was not to appear in the play itself, but to sing and dance his jig at the end of it, even after a tragedy, in order to soften the painful impression—(Camden Society Papers)—Kemp’s jig of ‘The Kitchen Stuff Woman’ was a screaming farce of rude verses, some spoken, others sung; of good and bad witticism; of extravagant acting and dancing. In the art of comic dancing Kemp was immoderately loved and admired. He paid professional visits to all the German and Italian courts, and was even summoned to dance his morris-dance before the Emperor Rudolph himself at Augsburg. “Kemp combined shrewdness with his rough humor. With a view to extending his reputation and his profits, he announced in 1599, his intention of dancing a morris-dance from London to Norwich; but to his annoyance, every inaccurate report of his gambols was hawked about in publication at the time by book-sellers or ballad-makers, like Kemp’s farewell to the tune of ‘Kerry Merry Buff.’ In order to check the circulation of falsehood, Kemp offered, he tells us, his first pamphlet to the press (though at the time he was thought to have had a hand in writing the Anti-Martinist plays and pamphlets—five pieces erroneously attributed to his pen). The only copy known is in the Bodleian Library. The title ran ‘Kemp’s Nine Days Wonder,’ the wonder referred to being performed in a dance from London to Norwich then written by himself to satisfy his friends. A woodcut on the title page shows Kemp in elaborate costume with bells about his knees playing to the accompaniment of a drum and tabor, which a man at his side is playing. This pamphlet was entered in the Stationers Book April 22, 1600. The dedicatory salutation to Anna Fritton, one of her Majesty’s maids of honor, shows us how arrogant and conceited he must have been.