A study of Robert Armin's career does much to illuminate the very different career of his predecessor, Kemp. Armin's own writings do much to document his life, and there is general scholarly agreement that the parts of ‘fools’ in Shakespeare were written for Armin to perform. While the idea that a performer's art could shape Shakespeare's writing has long run against the grain of the literary critical tradition, the idea that Armin was an intellectual influence has found a ready welcome.

The differences between Kemp and Armin were at once personal and historical. Armin belonged to a rising social group. He was an intellectual, a Londoner, and as well attuned to Renaissance notions of folly as to the English folk tradition. As an actor, Armin's skills lay in mime and mimicry, skills which could easily be adapted to a theatre based on satire and the mimesis of manners. Because he set himself up as a writer, Armin did not perceive that there was any necessary tension between the purposes of the dramatist and the purposes of the actor/clown. As a mimic and an intellectual, Armin never projected the clown persona of the common Englishman.

Let us examine Armin's career, and see how these traits emerge. Armin was the son of a tailor of King's Lynn, Norfolk. His education included the study of Latin and Italian. He took a step up the social ladder when he secured an apprenticeship with the prestigious London company of Goldsmiths.