The Company’s Famous Clown
William Kempe was among the Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s original sharers and had previously performed with the Earl of Leicester’s company. As the troupe’s clown, he likely played the broad comic parts that audiences expected to become the evening’s most exuberant moments.
He is associated with Peter in Romeo and Juliet and probably originated Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His comedy was energetic and conspicuous, built around physicality and comic timing.
A Mysterious Departure
Kempe had left the company by 1601, though the circumstances remain unclear. During Lent, when the troupe was inactive, he performed a famous morris dance to Norwich. His later account of the stunt, Nine Days’ Wonder, contains an epilogue hinting at a return to individual performances.
Enter Robert Armin
Kempe was replaced by Robert Armin, formerly of Chandos’s Men and an author himself. Armin was smaller and more fanciful, offering a different kind of comic presence. He is generally credited with originating Feste in Twelfth Night, Touchstone in As You Like It, and the fool in King Lear.
The change was more than a personnel adjustment. It reflected a shift from broad clowning toward witty, psychologically flexible fools—characters who could amuse audiences while also exposing uncomfortable truths.