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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

My glass shall not persuade me I am old
Language: English 
Our translations:  ITA
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee,
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O! therefore love, be of thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
  Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
  Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 22 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Benjamin Burrows (1891 - 1966), "Sonnet XXII", 1928 [ tenor or high baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Sonnet XXII", 2007 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Wolfgang Fortner (1907 - 1987), no title, 1981, published c1982 [ tenor and piano ], from Widmungen : aus den Sonetten von William Shakespeare, no. 3, Mainz ; New York : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gerard van Hulst , "My glass shall not persuade me I am old", op. 164 (Three Shakespeare-Songs) no. ? (1977) [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XXII", 1864 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by David Winkler , "Sonnet XXII", 1981 [ soprano and piano ], from Five songs [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 22, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Non mi convincerà lo specchio ch'io sia invecchiato", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 122

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