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I know nothing about Latin. I'm reading Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. The following two lines appears the top of the poem.

Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo
Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.

What's the English translation?

1 Answer 1

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These lines come from Ovid's Amores I.15, and literally mean:

Let the rabble marvel at their lowly things; as for me, let golden-haired Apollo serve me cupfulls of Castalian water.

Castalia was a spring near Delphi that was sacred to the Muses. So the overall intent of these two lines is "why should I care if people don’t like my art; I'm inspired by the gods, they just have bad taste".

For a more contemporary (to Shakespeare) translation, here's how Christopher Marlowe rendered it (rather freely in verse), around 1600:

Let base conceited wits admire vile things.
Fair Phoebus led me to the Muses' springs.

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