Shakespeare's Clown

Focusing on the clown Will Kemp, this book shows how Shakespeare and other dramatists wrote specific roles as vehicles for him.

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Note; 1. The Vice: from Mankind to Merchant of Venice; 2. Tarlton: the first 'clown'; 3. Kemp: a biography; 4. Kemp's jigs; 5. 'The clown' in playhouse terminology; 6. The roles of Kemp 'the clown'; 7. The genesis of the text: two explorations; 8. The conventions governing Kemp's scripted roles; 9. Falstaff; 10. Robert Armin; 11. William Kemp and Harry Hunks: play as game, actor as sign - a theoretical conclusion; Appendix; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.