Definition of "whilom"

Lo I the man, vvhoſe Muſe vvhilome did maske, / As time her taught, in lowly Sheapards vveeds, / Am novv enforſt a far unfitter taske, […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 1, page 1

VVith ſuch an invention [a sumptuary law] did Zelevcus vvhilome correct the corrupted maners of the Locrines.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Sumptuarie Lawes, or Lawes for Moderating of Expences”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 145

In Northern Clime a valorous Knight / Did whilom kill his Bear in fight, / And wound a Fidler: we have both / Of these the objects of our Wroth / And equal Fame and Glory from / Th' Attempt or Victory to come.

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto I, page 26

My vvarbling Lute, the Lute I vvhilom ſtrung / VVhen to King John of Portugal I ſung, / VVas but the Prelude to that glorious Day, / VVhen thou on Silver Thames did'ſt cut thy vvay, / VVith vvell-tim'd Oars before the Royal Barge, / Svvell'd vvith the Pride of thy Celeſtial charge; […]Spelled whilome in the 1st edition (1682).

c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, page 4

The Squire himſelf novv ſallied forth, and begun to roar forth the Name of Sophia loudly, and in as hoarſe a Voice, as vvhileom did Hercules that of Hylas: […]

1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the History Goes Backward”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book VII, pages 66–67

They who whilome, in midnight fight, / Had marvelled at her matchless might, / No less her maiden charms approved, / But looking liked, and liking loved.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Fifth: To George Ellis, Esq.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, page 231

Holding it [the skull of a hare] in the hand the shadow falls into and darkens the cavities once filled by the wistful eyes which whilom glanced down from the summit here upon the sweet clover fields beneath.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Downs—The Entrenchment—Ways of Larks. Hares—A Combat—Happiness of Animals. Ants—A Long Journey.”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], page 10

On the same day, two notable Female Prisoners are also put in ward there: Dame Dubarry and Josephine Beauharnais! Dame whilom Countess Dubarry, Unfortunate-female, had returned from London; they snatched her, not only as Ex-harlot of a whilom Majesty, and therefore suspect; but as having 'furnished the Emigrants with money.'

1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Death”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 290

The play must have appeared during the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, and must have been fresh in men's memory, when, as Plutarch tells us (Life of Lysander, c. 15), the deliberations about the fate of conquered Athens were determined by a Phocian actor singing the opening monody, which moved all to pity by its picture of a whilom princess reduced to miserable poverty.

1879, J[ohn] P[entland] Mahaffy, “His Plots”, in John Richard Green, editor, Euripides (Classical Writers), London: Macmillan and Co., paragraph 43, page 60

[S]he was expecting to be joined there by no such pale fellow-adventurer as her whilom uncle.

1909, Henry James, “Mora Montravers. Chapter V.”, in The Finer Grain, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published October 1910, page 99

Subjects their King, the King his Subjects greets, / VVhilome the Scepter and the Plough-ſtaffe meets.

1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], page 77