27
even as it is no ease unto him that prepareth a banquet and seeketh the benefit of others. Yet for the pleasuring of many we will undertake gladly these great pains,
28
leaving to the author the exact handling of every particular, and laboring to follow the rules of an abridgment.
29
For as the master builder of a new house must care for the whole building, but he that undertaketh to embellish it and paint it must seek out fit things for the adorning thereof, even so I think it is with us.
30
To stand upon every point, and go over things at large, and to be meticulous in particulars, belongeth to the first author of the story.
31
But to use brevity and avoid much laboring of the work is to be granted to him that will make an abridgment.
32
Here, then, will we begin the story, only adding this much to that which hath been said, since it is a foolish thing to make a long prologue and to be short in the story itself.