Manuscripts

This poem is found in only two manuscripts. LlGC 989B is a copy of Llst 164, an important manuscript written between 1586 and 1613 that includes collections by many poets from south-east Wales. Richard Turberville wrote in it a collection of poetry by Rhisiart ap Rhys, as well as collections by Rhisiart’s son, Lewys Morgannwg, his father, Rhys Brydydd, and his uncle, Gwilym Tew. Daniel Huws (2004: 19) suggests that it is likely that both Rhisiart’s and Lewys’s poems derive from autograph texts, as is the case in C 2.277 (c.1606) and J 90 (beginning of the 17c.), where Turberville copied autograph poems by Dafydd Benwyn. It is interesting to compare the quality of the present text with a disclaimer of sorts written by Turberville concerning the quality of his text in J 90: ag o gwelwch gam ysgryfenad yndo na diffygion amgen / tybygwch er y vod ef [Dafydd Benwyn] yn brydydd na doedd ef ysgryfynedydd nag ysgwlhaig or goraü / na minaü yn gallü yn hollol wella yr ysgryfenyddiaeth gan vod y papre or gerdd y koppiais i hwnn oddywrthyn yn dywyll ag yn llapre ‘And if you find mistakes in it or other deficiencies, you may suppose that, although he [Dafydd Benwyn] was a poet, he was not the best of scribes nor of scholars, and I could not fully improve the composition, as the papers from which I copied this poem are darkened and in tatters’ (see RWM ii, 56). It seems that some complications in the present text stemmed from similar copying difficulties (see notes for ll. 1, 17, 30, 53, 59), but the condition of the text is good on the whole. As with Lewys Morgannwg’s poems in the manuscript, Rhisiart’s poems were not copied in any discernible order (see GLMorg 14–15).

⁠⁠Title⁠
The title provided by Richard Turberville in the manuscript was probably sourced from the poem itself, i Sant Cirig ag i Saintau eraill i ddaisyf iechyd i glaf ‘to St Curig and other saints to wish good health to a sick man’. However, the title chosen for this edition reflects the fact that the poet appeals to a number of the saints of Morgannwg.⁠

⁠⁠The manuscripts⁠
⁠LlGC 989B, 20 (Llywarch Reynolds, 19c.)
⁠Llst 164, 156‒7 (Richard Turberville, 1586‒1613)⁠