Laudator Temporis Acti

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), The Faerie Queene, Book VI, Canto IX, Stanzas 24-25:

The time was once, in my first prime of yeares,
  When pride of youth forth pricked my desire,
  That I disdain'd amongst mine equall peares
  To follow sheepe, and shepheards base attire:
  For further fortune then I would inquire.
  And leauing home, to roiall court I sought;
  Where I did sell my selfe for yearely hire,
  And in the Princes gardin daily wrought:
There I beheld such vainenesse, as I neuer thought.

With sight whereof soone cloyd, and long deluded
  With idle hopes, which them doe entertaine,
  After I had ten yeares my selfe excluded
  From natiue home, and spent my youth in vaine,
  I gan my follies to my selfe to plaine,
  And this sweet peace, whose lacke did then appeare.
  Tho backe returning to my sheepe againe,
  I from thenceforth haue learn'd to loue more deare
This lowly quiet life, which I inherite here.