Walter Kennedy (poet): Difference between revisions
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'''Walter Kennedy''' (c.[[1455]] - [[1518]]?) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[makar]] associated with the renaissance court of [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]]. He is perhaps best known as the defendant against [[William Dunbar]] in ''[[The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie]]'', part of a poetic [[Tournament (medieval)|tournament]] which involved the public exchange of spectacular insults in verse. |
'''Walter Kennedy''' (c.[[1455]] - [[1518]]?) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[makar]] associated with the renaissance court of [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]]. He is perhaps best known as the defendant against [[William Dunbar]] in ''[[The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie]]'', part of a poetic [[Tournament (medieval)|tournament]] which involved the public exchange of spectacular insults in verse. |
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His surviving works clearly show him to have been an accomplished "master" in many genres<ref>Meier, Nicole, ed. ''The Poems of Walter Kennedy'', Scottish Text Society, 2008, p.ix</ref> and it is likely that a significant body of poetry by him has been lost. His most impressive poem is [[The Passioun]]. |
His surviving works clearly show him to have been an accomplished "master" in many genres<ref>Meier, Nicole, ed. ''[http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails-The+Poems+of+Walter+Kennedy+-9781897976289.html The Poems of Walter Kennedy]'', Scottish Text Society, 2008, p.ix</ref> and it is likely that a significant body of poetry by him has been lost. His most impressive poem is [[The Passioun]]. |
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==Life== |
==Life== |
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Revision as of 15:37, 19 July 2008
Walter Kennedy (c.1455 - 1518?) was a Scottish makar associated with the renaissance court of James IV. He is perhaps best known as the defendant against William Dunbar in The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie, part of a poetic tournament which involved the public exchange of spectacular insults in verse.
His surviving works clearly show him to have been an accomplished "master" in many genres[1] and it is likely that a significant body of poetry by him has been lost. His most impressive poem is The Passioun.
Life
Walter Kennedy was born into the Scottish branch of the Clan Kennedy, a principal aristocratic family in South Ayrshire which had its historic roots in Ireland. This was part of the Galloway Gàidhealtachd, a strong Gaelic-speaking area of the Scottish Lowlands, and he was almost certain to have been a fluent speaker of the language[2]. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and graduated as MA in 1478[2].
As great-grandson of Robert III[3] and nephew of James Kennedy, bishop of St Andrews[4], Kennedy would have been very well-connected in the royal court. He possessed estates in both Carrick and Galloway and is known to have held ecclesiastical posts such as rector of Douglas and canon of Glasgow Cathedral although records show that his right to hold at least one of his posts was contested by the Holy See in Rome[5].
Although Kennedy's surviving works are written in Middle Scots he may also have composed in Gaelic. In the Flyting, for instance, Dunbar makes big play of Kennedy's Carrick roots (albeit in the rankly insulting terms that are part of the genre) and strongly associates him with Erschry, which meant in other words the bardic tradition; the term Irish in Scotland signified Gaelic generally:
- Sic eloquence as thay in Erschry use,
- In sic is sett thy thraward appetyte.
- Thow hes full littill feill of fair indyte.
- I tak on me, ane pair of Lowthiane hippis
- Sall fairar Inglis mak and mair perfyte
- Than thow can blabbar with thy Carrik lippis.
- Such eloquence as they employ in Gaelic
- Is what defines your perverse taste.
- You have very small aptitude for good verse-making.
- I'll wager that a Lothian backside
- Shall produce Scots finer and more polished
- Than anything your Carrick lips can blabber.[6]
Kennedy also appears at the end of Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris (c.1505) where he is described as being close to death (in poynt of dede) though there is no evidence that he died at this date[7].
Works
Only six works by Walter Kennedy are extant, including his contribution to the Flyting, but taken together these amount to a not insignificant 2443 lines of verse. Kennedy's longest poem is The Passioun of Crist, a courtly and successful depiction of the story of Christ from the nativity to the ascension and a significant yet neglected work altogether different in form, register and subject from the Flyting, his second longest work[4].
There are four other works, all much shorter but still highly various in genre:
- An aigit man, twys fourty yeiris
- At Matyne hour, in myddis of the nycht
- Ane Ballat of Our Lady
- Leif luve, my luve, na langar it lyk
Walter Kennedy was an acclaimed poet in his lifetime. Both Gavin Douglas and Sir David Lyndsay paid tribute to him as a fellow makar in their works.
Influence
The Twentieth century poet William Neill, interested in Kennedy's South Ayrshire roots and his possible role as a Gaelic speaker in the Scottish court, has incorporated tributes to the makar into his own writing. One example is the Gaelic poem Chuma Bhaltair Cinneide (In Memory of Walter Kennedy)[8] which opens:
Chunnaic mi Bhaltair Cinneide
a' coiseachd troimh clach mo shùl
fo sgàil a' Chaisteal Dhuibh,
aig am laighe ne greine
is grinneal fo chois
air tràigh liath Dhùn Iubhair...I saw Walter Kennedy
walking through the apple of my eye
under the shadow of the Black Vault,
at the time of sunset,
and the gravel under his feet
on the grey beach of Dunure...
References
- ^ Meier, Nicole, ed. The Poems of Walter Kennedy, Scottish Text Society, 2008, p.ix
- ^ a b Meier, 2008. p. xv
- ^ Tasioulas, J.A The Makars, Canongate, p.789.
- ^ a b Meier, 2008. op cit.
- ^ Meier, 2008, p.xvii.
- ^ Paraphrase by User:Крепкий чай
- ^ Meier, 2008 (ibid. p.xvii) posits the possibility that Kennedy may have lived until 1518, the year in which one of his sons is on record as succeeding to some of his estates
- ^ William Neill: Selected Poems 1969-1992, Canongate, pp.80-81 The translation is by the poet.