Skip to main content

The Folger is open during normal hours this week, but travel times for visitors may be impacted by Washington, DC, street closures. Learn more

or search all Shakespeare texts
Back to main page

Lucrece - Dedication

Cite

Navigate this work

Lucrece - Dedication
Jump to

Dedication

TO THE RIGHT
HONORABLE, HENRY
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton,
and Baron of Titchfield.



 The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end; whereof this
pamphlet without beginning is but a superfluous moiety. The warrant
I have of your honorable disposition, not the worth of my untutored
lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done is
yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted
yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime,
as it is, it is bound to your Lordship, to whom I wish long life
still lengthened with all happiness.

Your Lordship’s in all duty,
William Shakespeare