Author: [FABRY (Wilhelm)]:
Title: Guilhelmi Fabrici Hildani Observationum & Curationum Cheirurgicarum Centuria Secunda. Epistolis nonnullis virorum doctissimorum, nec non instrumentis cheirurgicis, ab authore inuentis illustrata.
Description: Genevae, , Apud Petrum & Iacobum Chouët. M. D C. XI. [1611] 8vo. Contemporary calf, somewhat worn. xxx, port., 432, 10 pp. Woodcut Illustrations. This edition of Fabry's treatise was published in 1611, and the inscriptions appear contemporary or very near to being contemporary. Though Shakespeare himself seems to have written primarily in secretary hand, it was not uncommon for the italic hand (used here by Kemp) to be employed in England at this time. The most well-known Will Kemp or Kempe who lived in England in earliest years of the seventeenth century was the Will or William Kemp who performed some of Shakespeare's greatest comic characters on stage in the playwright's lifetime, and who, like Shakespeare, had a share in the Globe Theatre. It is widely believed that several comic characters penned by Shakespeare were written with Kemp in mind as the actor who could bring those characters to life on the stage. Kemp was known for his wit, his physical dexterity, his "jig," and his sheer athleticism. Once, in response to a dare, he danced a Morris Dance for nine days from London to Norwich, later detailing his adventure in a chapbook, Kemps Nine Daies Wonder (1600). At one point in his account, Kemp complains heatedly about a book in Latin that a friend brandished, and Kemp writes negatively, indeed belittlingly, of the content of the book: "Yet all this while could not I finde out the true ballet-maker, till by chaunce a friend of mine puld out of his pocket a booke in Latine, called Mundus Furiosus, printed at Cullen, written by one of the vilest and arrantest lying Cullians that euer writ booke, his name Jansonius, who, taking vpon him to write an abstract of all the turbulent actions that had beene lately attempted or performed in Christendome, like an vnchristian wretch, writes onely by report, partially, and scoffingly of such whose pages shooes hee was vnworthy to wipe…" (p. 22). Kemp is apparently punning on Cullen (meaning the German town of Cologne) and cullians (usually meaning wretches), according to Andrew Lang (Social England Illustrated: A Collection of XVIIth Century Tracts, [1903], p. 161). I take it that Kemp's having familiarity with the content of a Latin book implies that Kemp had at least "small Latin", as did Shakespeare. It is also well documented that Kemp travelled as a performer in Europe, more than once, totalling many months of his life, and in this era Latin was the lingua franca on the continent. In the early seventeenth century Kemp set out on a "solo continental tour", making his way "into Germany and Italy, eventually arriving at Rome" (Oxford DNB). Several facts that we know of Kemp's life we know only from German or German-language sources. If the two inscriptions of the owner's name, "W. K." and "Will: Kemp", on the title-page of this copy of Fabry's treatise from 1611, are indeed inscriptions of the famous comic actor from Shakespeare's lifetime, this item would alter our sense of the length of Kemp's life. Some years ago it was believed Kemp might have died in 1603 (NB), but more recently it has been believed he might have lived until "1610?" or a little after (Oxford DNB). If these inscriptions are the actor's, they would be proof that he lived later, until at least 1611, since the book itself is dated clearly, on its title-page, to "M. D C. XI." It may be noted, as well, that when it comes to a medical treatise that is profusely and clearly illustrated, a reader may get much from such a book with even a little proficiency in Latin, as the images augment and clarify the text. It has also been suspected that Kemp was in poor health for some months or years before his death, which is no doubt motivation enough to acquire a sound medical treatise by a respected surgeon who lived in a country through which one has recently travelled. Other Kemps and Kempes Several other people named Will/iam Kemp/e from the time can, quite handily, be ruled out, or be relegated to a lower tier. The Oxford DNB finds, in addition to the Shakespearean actor, only two others from this time period with the name. The first, William Kemp or Kempe (c.1560-1601), a "writer on education", is certain to have died in the year 1601, and specifically between the months of July and November of that year, because it was on "24 July 1601" that "he signed his will" and it was on "18 November" of 1601 that "the grant of probate" was issued, so he cannot have inscribed a book published a decade later, in 1611. The second, William Kemp or Kempe (1554/5-1628), a "landowner and sufferer from melancholia", may be a possibility, but the Oxford DNB gives no indication that he knew Latin or Greek, or had much of an education, let alone a classical one. The predominant strain in his biography seems to be that of suffering from being so "swallowed up with a melancholy phrensie, that he neither went to Church nor spake to any person for several years". While it is conceivable that such a sufferer may make an exception to head out and buy a few books at a bookstall, such an activity might have been less likely for a longtime utter recluse than for a talented outgoing actor. ESTC finds no books that the database mentions were inscribed "Will: Kemp" or "Will Kemp" by any owner who lived in Shakespeare's lifetime. Nor does the ESTC note that any extant copies of the Shakespearean actor's only book, Kemps Nine Daies Wonder (1600), which is ESTC S119460, were presentation copies or copies with authorial markings. In fact, the ESTC finds but a single copy of Kemp's chapbook from 1600, the one held by the Bodleian.

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