Walter Kennedy

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 [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] 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 Clan Kennedy, a principal aristocratic family in South Ayrshire. 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 languageMeier, 2008. p. xv] . He was educated at the University of Glasgow and graduated as MA in 1478.

As great-grandson of Robert III [Tasioulas, J.A "The Makars", Canongate, p.789.] and nephew of James Kennedy, bishop of St AndrewsMeier, 2008. "op cit".] , 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 [Meier, 2008, p.xvii.] .

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." [Paraphrase by ]

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 [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] .

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.

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") [William Neill: "Selected Poems 1969-1992", Canongate, pp.80-81 The translation is by the poet.] which opens:

cquote
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