Author: KENNEDY, Walter
Biography:
KENNEDY, Walter (c. 1455-1518: ODNB)
A prior poet whose works were transcribed from manuscript by David Laing and printed in his edition of the collected poems of William Dunbar (q.v.), he was a younger son of Gilbert Kennedy, Lord Kennedy of Denure, Ayrshire, Scotland, and his wife Katherine Maxwell. His likely birth year is 1455. The Kennedy family owned estates in south-west Scotland and Walter Kennedy could claim descent from Robert III of Scotland and kinship with James IV of Scotland. He was educated at the University of Glasgow (BA 1476, MA 1478) and in 1481 he was made one of four examiners for the university. By about 1505 he had married Christian Hynd; of their children, at least two sons survived their father. He died sometime before 18 June 1518, the date of a deed of conveyance of his estates to his son, Walter. Although his poetry was admired in his lifetime, Kennedy is now remembered mainly for his poetic quarrel or “flyting” with Dunbar. Poems in The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy were composed before 1505 and the book was printed in about 1508, making it one of the first to be printed in Scotland. Other poems by Kennedy survive in the manuscripts consulted by Laing for the book included in this bibliography. Laing was severely dismissive of Kennedy’s long poem, “The Passion of Christ,” and printed only an extract but it is now regarded as “learned and complex” (ODNB). (ODNB 21 Aug. 2024; D. Laing, ed., The Poems of William Dunbar [1834]) SR