beforetime

Is this the beforetime for Johns, a memory of a time before he decided to be an artist, before he turned inward and began to live almost entirely in his head?

From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2021

Then a wonderful thing happened, for Miss Norton, beforetime the cold, self-contained, strict house mistress, dropped her mask of reserve, and, throwing a tender arm round Eric, began a tale of elves and fairies.

From A Patriotic Schoolgirl by Balliol Salmon

"Would you have believed that I was bribed, my prince, had it not chanced that you had heard of the sword from me beforetime?"

From King Olaf's Kinsman A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in the Days of Ironside and Cnut by Charles W. (Charles Watts) Whistler

They did not mean to act any lie by this means, however, for the tin vessels were not made for the purposes of deception, but had been there beforetime.

From Pine Needles by Susan Warner

This fellow of Clare Hall, when I began to preach the gospel, became my enemy, and did me some injury in some ecclesiastical privileges which beforetime I had enjoyed.

From The Baptist Magazine, Vol. 27, 1835 by Various