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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

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), "My glass shall not persuade me I am old", 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

Ma glace ne me persuadera pas que je...
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Ma glace ne me persuadera pas que je suis vieux, 
tant que la jeunesse et toi vous serez du même âge ; 
ce n'est que quand je remarquerai sur toi les sillons du temps 
que je m'attendrai à voir la mort terminer mes jours.
Car toute cette beauté qui te couvre 
n'est que le vêtement visible de mon cœur, 
qui bat dans ta poitrine, comme ton cœur dans la mienne. 
Comment donc puis-je être plus vieux que toi ?
Ainsi, ô mon amour, veille sur toi-même, 
comme je veille sur toi, non pour moi-même, mais pour toi. 
Car je porte ton cœur, et je le préserverai de tout mal, 
avec la vigilance d'une tendre nourrice pour son marmot.
  Ne réclame pas ton cœur quand je n'ai plus le mien. 
  Tu me l'as donné, ce n'est pas pour le reprendre.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 22, first published 1857 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 22
    • Go to the text page.

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

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 137

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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

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