Walter Kennedy Biography | Poet

Walter Kennedy (c. 1460-c. 1508), Scottish poet, was the third son of Gilbert, 1st Lord Kennedy. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1475 and took his M.A. degree in 1478. In 1481 he was one of four examiners in his university, and in 1492 he acted as depute for his nephew, the hereditary bailie of Carrick. He is best known for his share in the Flyting with Dunbar (q.v.). In this coarse combat of wits Dunbar taunts his rival with his Highland speech (the poem is an expression of Gaelic and “Inglis,” i.e. English, antagonism); and implies that he had been involved in treason, and had disguised himself as a beggar in Galloway. With the exception of this share in the Flyting Kennedy’s poems are chiefly religious in character. They include The Praise of Aige, Ane Agit Manis Invective against Mouth Thankless, Ane Ballat in Praise of Our Lady, The Passion of Christ and Pious Counsale. They are printed in the rare supplement to David Laing’s edition of William Dunbar (1834), and they have been re-edited by Dr J. Schipper in the proceedings of the Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna).

See also the prolegomena in the Scottish Text Society’s edition of Dunbar; and (for the life) Pitcairn’s edition of the Historie of the Kennedies(1830).