On the first Monday in Lent, 1599, the comic actor William Kempe departed London with his flute-and-tabor accompanist, Tom the Piper. Their 140-mile Morris-dancing excursion captured the popular imagination and led to publication of the pamphlet "Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder, Containing the Pleasure, Pain, and Kind Entertainment of William Kemp Betweene London and that Cittie" [Norwich]. They received hearty welcomes in the towns of Romford, Chelmsford, Braintree, and Sudbury, where, according to Kemp's notes he met "a lusty country lasse...I lookt upon her, saw mirth in her eyes, heard boldness in her words, and beheld her ready to tuck up her russett petticoate...The drum strucke; forward marcht I with my merry Mayde Marian, who shook her fat sides and footed it merrily to Melford, being a long myle".
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timeasmymeasure
From Pam...
Date: 2006-04-10 02:44 pm (UTC)On the first Monday in Lent, 1599, the comic actor William Kempe departed London with his flute-and-tabor accompanist, Tom the Piper. Their 140-mile Morris-dancing excursion captured the popular imagination and led to publication of the pamphlet "Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder, Containing the Pleasure, Pain, and Kind Entertainment of William Kemp Betweene London and that Cittie" [Norwich]. They received hearty welcomes in the towns of Romford, Chelmsford, Braintree, and Sudbury, where, according to Kemp's notes he met "a lusty country lasse...I lookt upon her, saw mirth in her eyes, heard boldness in her words, and beheld her ready to tuck up her russett petticoate...The drum strucke; forward marcht I with my merry Mayde Marian, who shook her fat sides and footed it merrily to Melford, being a long myle".
There's no accounting for taste....