File NLW MS 11986B. - Barddoniaeth Rhys Cain a Siôn Cain, etc.,

An imperfect manuscript containing fifty 'cywyddau' and five 'awdlau' written during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The majority of the poems are drafts by, and in the respective hands of, the herald bards Rhys Cain and his son Siôn Cain of Oswestry, the former being represented by twenty-seven poems of which some are dated between 1582 and 1612 and the latter by twenty poems of which some are dated between 1609 and 1634. Other poets represented in the volume are William Llŷn, James Dwnn, 1616 (holograph), Edward ap Raff, Richard Cynwal, Lewys ap Edward, and Siôn Phylip. About three fourths of the poems are hitherto unrecorded. The volume is made up of individual poems written on separate papers which were previously stitched, though probably not for the purpose of covering and binding in book form, and as in the case of other manuscripts deriving from the Cains, e.g., Peniarth MS. 117, each paper bears evidence of having at one time been folded and filed in a bundle, generally with an endorsement, until eventually it became worn and tattered at the creases. The title of one 'cywydd' by Rhys Cain has been added in the hand of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt.