Note xi:1 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
George Chalmers, who cites the present passage, observes, that Kemp “was as illiterate, probably, as he was certainly jocose. The Cambridge scholars laughed at his gross illiterature.” Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 491. What folly to take the measure of Kemp’s acquirements from such a scene as this! He may have had no classical learning; but assuredly, as the Nine daies wonder shews, he was not grossly illiterate.