16th-century hardcore racist vitriolic humor from Scotland, courtesy of William Dunbar. “Of Ane Blak-Moir”. Really funny stuff.
Long have I wrote of ladies white
But now of black I will indict
That landed on the latest ships
who I’d gladly describe as perfect
My lady with the big lips.
How her mouth juts like an ape
And like slimy vermin does gape
And how her short cat nose skips up
And her grease shines like soap
My lady with the big lips
When she is clad in rich apparel
She shines as bright as a tar barrel
When she was born the sun suffered eclipse
The night gladly fought in her quarrel
My lady with the big lips
Who for her sake with spear and shield
Proves most mightily in the field
Shall kiss and with her go in grips
And from thence forth her love shall wield
My lady with the big lips.
And who in the field receives shame
And loses there his knightly name
Shall come behind and kiss her hips
And never other comfort claim
My lady with the big lips.
This poem is important because it is an example of vitriolic racism before the Anglo-Scottish involvement in the slave trade. Much of modern anti-racism has created a mythology that racism is a result of propaganda and jurisprudence that was in defense of the slavery, but this is an easy counterpoint to that. Normal Scotsmen were disgusted with the sight of Africans well before, without any overt economic influence to feel so.
This poem was about a well documented Negress that traveled to Scotland that Dunbar saw with his own eyes, Ellen More, who passed in 1535.
