Category:William Kempe

William Kempe was the next most famous Elizabethan clown after Richard Tarlton. Associated early in his career with players who would join the Chamberlain's Men in 1594, he was with Lord Strange's Men in 1592 when the company played A Knack to Know a Knave, on the title page of which is an advertisement of his merriments. In 1600 he (famously) danced the morris from London to Norwich over a stretch of nine days. After leaving the Chamberlain's Men, he joined Worcester's Men. A burial entry on 2 November 1603 in St. Saviour, Southwark, of "Kempe, a man"is probably his.