A son of one of the “Kings of Carrick"—Walter Kennedy, a celebrated minstrel,—was plainly of tawny skin…
He was of the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries; and is remembered chiefly for his "Flyting" with his contemporary Dunbar…
In this "Flyting," his opponent taunts Kennedy with his complexion, —using such expressions as these:—
“Thy skolderit [scorched] skin, hued like ane saffron bag;"—“blackenit is thy blee" ["your complexion is black”]—“blac [blackish], barefoot bairn”—“ loun-like Mahoun” [i.e. “Saracen”]—“Fy! fiendly front!” [“devil-like visage”]
All of which denote that this "Irish thieving minstrel" (another of Dunbar's petty epithets) was of "gypsy" blood: which quite bears out his reported descent from the Egyptian—(Scot) Kennedy, of the ninth century…
Kennedy (Cunnedda) is a descriptive surname, from the Gaelic word 'Ceannaideach’ meaning 'grim-headed'
For not only was “The Good Sir James” known as the Black Douglas, but so also was his grandson, a son of Archibald the Grim…
More than this, it seems very probable that Archibald the Grim, was really so called because he was Archibald the Black…
This is actually stated by one writer, who says that “on account of his swarthy complexion [he] was commonly called ‘the grim’
It is worth remarking that one of the equivalents for “a black man”—namely [was] græme, grim or grime…
A græme was so known because he was a grim or black man—a moor.
As Kennedy retorts upon Dunbar in similar terms, it would seem that both of them,—like a contemporary royal minstrel, Peter the Moryen, —were of the same race as those earlier black jongleurs of the John-of-Rampayne anecdote…
Kennedy speaks of Dunbar as "Lucifer's lad, foul fiend's face infernal," "Saracen," "juggler," and "jow"; which last title, it appears, means nothing else than tinker or gypsy…
Therefore, if this Kennedy was a good representative of his tribe, the Kennedies were gypsies of the genuine kind…
Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries…
Examples of flyting are found throughout Scots, Ancient, Medieval and Modern Celtic, Old English, Middle English and Norse literature involving both historical and mythological figures…
The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion…
Flyting became public entertainment in Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries, when poets would engage in verbal contests of provocative, often sexual and scatological but highly poetic abuse…
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie records a contest between William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy in front of James IV, which includes the earliest recorded use of the word shit as a personal insult…
The Dozens is a game played between two contestants in which the participants insult each other until one of them gives up…
Common in so called black American communities, the Dozens is almost exclusively played in front of an audience, who encourage the participants to reply with increasingly severe insults…
The Dozens is a "pattern of interactive insult" evident among all classes of so called black Americans, among men and women, children and adults…
Usually two participants engage in banter, but always in front of others, who incite the participants to continue the game by making the insults worse…
Frequently used topics among players who "play the Dozens" are one's opponent's lack of intelligence, ugliness, cowardice, poor hygiene, and exaggerations of physical defects…
Nonetheless, many such contests do end in fights…
The loser of the Dozens is the one who takes his opponent's words at face value, therefore ending his own performance in the back-and-forth exchange…
No comments:
Post a Comment