Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Age
Age and want sit smiling at the gate.
Pope.—Moral Essays, to Bathurst, Epistle III., Line 266.
Slow-consuming age.
Gray.—Ode on Eton College, Verse 9.
Borne on the swift, tho’ silent wings of time,
Old age comes on apace, to ravage all the clime.
Beattie.—The Minstrel, Verse 25, Line 8.
Age shakes Athena’s tower, but spares gray Marathon.
Byron.—Childe Harold, Canto II., Stanza 88, last Line.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
Shakespeare.—Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Scene 2. (Enobarbus to Mecænas.)
Your date is better in your pie
And your porridge, than in your cheek.
Shakespeare.—All’s Well that ends Well, Act I. Scene 1. (Parolles to Helena.)
Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part II., Act I. Scene 2. (Falstaff to the Chief Justice.)
I have seen more days than you.
Shakespeare.—Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Scene 1. (Antony to Octavius.)
While grace celestial with enliv’ning ray
Beam’d forth to gild the ev’ning of his day.
Dr. Harte.—Eulogius.
Age too, shines out, and garrulous recounts the feats of youth.
Thomson.—Autumn, Line 1229.
Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
Genesis, Chap. xv. Verse 15. (God to Abraham.)
Come forth, old man,—thy daughter’s side
Is now the fitting place for thee:
When time has quell’d the oak’s bold pride,
The youthful tendril yet may hide
The ruins of the parent tree.
Scott.—Woodstock, Chap. II.
Down his neck his reverend lockes
In comelye curles did wave;
And on his aged temples grewe
The blossomes of the grave.
Old Ballad.—2 Percy Reliques, 171.
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;
Age is unnecessary: on my knees I beg
That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act II. Scene 4. (The King to his daughter Regan.)
You see me here,—a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act II. Scene 4. (The King to his daughter Regan.)
He is older than Saturn.
Le Sage.—Gil Blas, Vol. I. Book III. Chap. II.
An age that melts with unperceived decay,
And glides in modest innocence away;
Whose peaceful Day benevolence endears,
Whose Night congratulating conscience cheers;
The general favourite as the general friend:
Such age there is, and who shall wish its end?
Dr. Johnson.—Vanity of Human Wishes, Line 293.
O, sir! I must not tell my age.
They say women and music should never be dated.
Goldsmith.—She Stoops to Conquer, Act III.
Just at the age ’twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.
Scott.—Marmion, Introduction to 2nd Canto.
Tell me what you find better, or more honourable than age. Is not wisdom entail’d upon it? Take the pre-eminence of it in every thing; in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree.
Shakerly Marmion.—The Antiquary, Act II. Scene 1.
Old friends are best. King James us’d to call for his old shoes, they were easiest for his feet.
Selden.—Table Talk, title “Friends.” (Arber’s English Reprints, 51.)
[Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of Old Age, that age appeared to be best in these four things; Old Wood to burn! Old Wine to drink! Old Friends to trust! Old Authors to read! (From Bartlett’s book of Quotations.) Quoting Melchior.]
We see time’s furrows on another’s brow,
How few themselves in that just mirror see!
Young.—Night V. Lines 627, 629.
Press’d with the weight of more than fourscore years.
Lillo.—The Christian Hero, Act II.
His cheek the map of days outworn.
Shakespeare.—Sonnet 68.
To the old, long life and treasure;
To the young, all health and pleasure.
Ben Jonson.—A song in the Gipsies Metamorphosed.
When the age is in, the wit is out.
Shakespeare.—Much Ado About Nothing, Act III. Scene 5. (Dogberry.)
Crabbed age and youth, cannot live together.
Shakespeare.—The Passionate Pilgrim, Stanza 10.