LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,120)
  • Text Authors (19,527)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Time's eldest son, Old Age
Language: English 
Time's eldest son, Old Age, the heir of Ease,
  Strength's foe, Love's woe, and foster to Devotion,
Bids gallant youths in martial prowess please,
  As for himself, he hath no earthly motion,
But thinks sighs, tears, vows, prayers, and sacrifices,
As good as shows, masks, jousts, or tilt devises.

Then sit thee down, and say thy Nunc Dimittis,
  With De profundis, Credo and Te Deum,
Chant Miserere for what is now so fit is,
  As that, or this, Paratum est cor meum,
O that thy Saint would take in worthy heart,
Thou canst not please her with a better part.

When others sing Venite exultemus,
  Stand by and turn to Noli aemulari,
For Quare fremuerunt use Oremus;
  Vivat Eliza for an Ave Maria,
And teach those swains that live about thy cell,
To say Amen when thou dost pray so well.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [author's text not yet checked 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 John Dowland (1562 - 1626), "Time's eldest son, Old Age" [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 148

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris