0.1Vilia miretur vulgus: mihi flavus Apollo

Vilia miretur vulgus . . . aqua.

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¶Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.

¶Right Honorable,

¶I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden. Only if your honor seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised and vow to take advantage of all idle hours till I have honored you with some graver labor. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a godfather and never after ear so barren a land for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honorable survey and your honor to your heart's content, which I wish may always answer your own wish and the world's hopeful expectation.

how

by what means; in what manner

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unpolished lines

unworthy verses

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choosing so strong a prop . . . burden

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all idle hours

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some graver labor

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first heir of my invention

first literary work, since plays were not regarded in the period as literature but as popular entertainment

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deformed

defective, imperfect, undeserving

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ear

"To plough, till (the ground); also, to turn up (the ground), to throw up (an object) with a plough" (OED v. 1).

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survey

Meaning both a ". . . literary examination, discussion, or description, of something" (OED fig. n. 4) and an inspection, as of a tract of land, to assess its value, consistent with nature imagery.

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