All the world's a stage
"All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything". It is one of Shakespeare's most frequently-quoted passages.
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[edit] The ages
The man in the poem goes through these stages:
• Infancy: In this stage he is a baby
• Childhood: It is in this stage that he begins to go to school. He is reluctant to leave the protected environment of his home as he is still not confident enough to exercise his own discretion.
• The lover: In this stage he is always remorseful due to some reason or other, especially the loss of love. He tries to express feelings through song or some other cultural activity.
• The soldier: It is in this age that he thinks less of himself and begins to think more of others. He is very easily aroused and is hot headed. He is always working towards making a reputation for himself and gaining recognition, however short-lived it may be, even at the cost of his own life.
• The justice: In this stage he has acquired wisdom through the many experiences he has had in life. He has reached a stage where he has gained prosperity and social status. He becomes very attentive of his looks and begins to enjoy the finer things of life.
• Old age: He begins to lose his charm — both physical and mental. He begins to become the brunt of others' jokes. He loses his firmness and assertiveness, and shrinks in stature and personality.
• Mental dementia and death: He loses his status and he becomes a non-entity. He becomes dependent on others like a child and is in need of constant support before finally dying.
[edit] Origins
The comparison of the world to a stage and people to actors long predated Shakespeare. When it was founded in 1599 Shakespeare's own theatre, The Globe may have used the motto Totus mundus agit historionem (All the world plays the actor), the latin text of which is derived from a 12th century treatise.[1] Ultimately the words derive from quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem (because almost the whole world are actors) attributed to Petronius, a phrase which had wide circulation in England at the time.
Likewise the division of human life into a series of ages was a commonplace of art and literature, which Shakespeare would have expected his audiences to recognize. The number of ages varied: three and four being the most common among ancient writers such as Aristotle. The concept of seven ages derives from medieval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven deadly sins, for theological reasons. The seven ages model dates from the 12th century.[2] King Henry V had a tapestry illustrating the seven ages of man.[3]
According to T. W. Baldwin, Shakespeare's version of the concept that the world is a stage is based primarily upon Palingenius' book Zodiacus Vitae, a school text he would have studied at the Stratford Grammar School, which also enumerates stages of human life. He also takes elements from Ovid and other sources known to him [4]
[edit] All the World's a Stage monologue
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. As, first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
[edit] In limerick
The poem was compressed into limerick form by the historian Robert Conquest.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Marjorie B. Garber, Profiling Shakespeare, Routledge, 2008, p.292.
- ^ J.A. Burrow, The Ages of Man: A Study In Medieval Writing and Thought, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986.
- ^ PROME, 1423 October, item 31 entries 757-97 quoted in Ian Mortimer, 1415 - Henry V's Year of Glory, p.45 footnote 2.
- ^ Baldwin, T. W. (1944), William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greek, 1, Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, p.652-73.
- ^ Hitchens, Christopher (3 February 2007). "Anti-Sovietchik No. 1". The Wall Street Journal (New York: Dow Jones). ISSN 0099-9660. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117046575187596976-search.html. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
