Walter Kennedy is best known as William Dunbar's feisty opponent in their celebrated Flyting, but his poetic talents, praised by such famous near-contemporaries as Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay, extend far beyond this, ranging from short bawdy lyric to sustained devotional meditation. This first complete edition of all his surviving poetry offers parallel-text versions of all the textual witnesses for each poem, a full set of textual and explanatory notes, a substantial glossary, and appendices. An extensive introduction provides biographical information, and sets the text in its cultural and intellectual context. The book is thus both an invitation to Kennedy's poetry - the only extant medieval poetry from the west of Scotland - and a tribute to a significant poetic voice of the late middle ages.
NICOLE MEIER lectures at the Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie, University of Bonn.
Reviews
This welcome edition contains a thorough introduction covering what is known of Kennedy's life, his manuscript tradition, and critical analyses of
The Passioun. YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES
Puts a welcome spotlight on the poet. [...] this is a very valuable, generous and thoroughly researched edition that goes a long way to restore Kennedy to the high reputation he once enjoyed, and which makes full use of the special opportunities of presentation that his extant oeuvre provides. THE INNES REVIEW
