Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cain, Rhys
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CAIN, RHYS (16th cent.), a Welsh poet of the latter part of the sixteenth century, was born at Trawsfynydd in Merionethshire, a village on the river Cain, whence he took his surname. Several poems by him are preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. They consist chiefly of englynion and of complimentary poems addressed to various persons; among these last is one to William Morgan, bishop of St. Asaph, ‘on his translating the Bible into Welsh.’ Some of these poems are dated, the dates ranging from about 1570 to 1600; that to Bishop Morgan may be assigned to 1588, the date of the appearance of the Welsh Bible in print. Rhys Cain is said also to have been a painter as well as a poet.
[Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 14874, 14965, 14973–8, 24980.]