Splitting a set of vectors in a list

I have a set of character vectors of uneven length
 that I have stored in a list.  I can easily enough get
 any column of them  using lapply but what I want is to
 be able to create a matrix of them.  Other than some
 kind of brute force looping approach I have drawn a
 blank.

 Would somebody please suggest something? Thanks

 Example.

 mylist <- list(aa=c("cat","peach" ), bb=c("dog",
 "apple", "iron"),
         cc = c("rabbit", "orange", "zinc", "silk"))
 myfun <- function(dff) dff[1]
 vect1  <- unlist(lapply(mylist, myfun))


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