they may appeare to you.
427 Such as they be, vouchsafe them to receaue,
428 And wipe their faults out of your censure graue.
429 E. S.
430
411
412 _To the Right Honourable the Lord Burghley, Lord High

Lord Burghley > (William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 1520-98: the most
powerful man in England. An enemy of the Earl of Leicester, who
was the uncle of Sir Philip Sidney (one of Spenser's friends).
This, taken in combination with Spenser's friendship with Raleigh
(another enemy) perhaps disinclined Burghley to favour the poet or
his work)

413 Treasurer of England_
414
415 To, you right noble lord, whose careful breast

careful > {Full of cares; prudent}
breast > heart; _hence:_ mind

416 To manage most grave affairs is bent,

bent > inclined, directed

417 And on whose mighty shoulders most does rest
418 The burden of this kingdom's government

burden > burden; fate, destiny

419 (As the wide compass of the firmament
420 On Atlas' mighty shoulders is upstayed);

Atlas > (A mythical giant said to support on his shoulders the pillars
of the universe)
upstayed > supported

421 Unfitly I these idle rhymes present,

idle > empty; vain, trifling

422 The labour of lost time and wit unstayed:

wit > mind, intelligence
unstayed > unsteady

423 Yet if their deeper sense be inly weighed,

inly > inwardly

424 And the dim veil, with which from common view

common > vulgar

425 Their fairer parts are hidden, aside be laid,
426 Perhaps not vain they may appear to you.

vain > foolish, futile

427 Such as they be, vouchsafe them to receive,
428 And wipe their faults out of your censure grave.
429 _E. S._
430
431
432 _To the right Honourable the Earle of Oxenford_,
433 Lord high Chamberlayne of England. &c.
434
435 REceiue most Noble Lord in gentle gree,
436 The vnripe fruit of an vnready wit:
437 Which by thy countenaunce doth craue to bee
438 Defended from foule Enuies poisnous bit.
439 Which so to doe may thee right well besit,
440 Sith th'antique glory of thine auncestry
441 Vnder a shady vele is therein writ,
442 And eke thine owne long liuing memory,
443 Succeeding them in true nobility:
444 A