Kemps Jig

 

Home

Cuckolds All a Row

Cushion Dance

Daphne

Dargason

Greensleeves

Half Hannikin

Heart's Ease

Kemps Jig

Lusty Gallant

Peppers Black

Put Thy Smock a Monday

Sellenger's Round

Shaking of the Sheets

Trenchmore

  

Playford Edition:

‘Kemp’s Jig’ is located in the 1st edition of The [English] Dancing Master, (1651). 

Documentation Between 1603-1651:

  Information to follow.


Documentation Prior to 1603:

‘Kemp’s Jig’ can be documented to 1580, where Will Kemp, Elizabethan actor and a shareholder with Shakespeare in the Company of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, was bet 100 pounds that he couldn’t dance the jig for 100 miles, in less than 10 days.  Kemp took the bet and danced from London to Norwich (about 80 miles) in 9 days, which spanned about a month to leave time for rest and recuperation during the journey.  Later, he wrote Nine Daie’s Wonder, to explain his journey.                                    

Musical History:

According to legend, jigging from London to Norwich satisfied the bet, and the tune Kemp’s Jig was written to commemorate the occasion.                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woodcut from Nine Daies Wonder