All the world's a stage

For the live album by Rush, see All the World's a Stage (album).

The Seven Ages of Man by William Mulready, 1838, illustrating the speech

"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. 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.

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. 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. King Henry V had a tapestry illustrating the seven ages of man.

The full passage is:
"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. At 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 lin'd,
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 sav'd, 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." — Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)

Interpretation

• Infancy: In this stage he is an infant. He cries like thousand times and vomits milk in the arms of the nurse. He grows stronger with the passage of time.
• Childhood: It is in this stage that he begins to go to school. He plays the role of a complaining and unwilling schoolboy. 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 (sometimes called "second childhood") and is in need of constant support before finally dying.

In limerick

The poem was compressed into limerick form by the historian Robert Conquest:

Seven ages: first puking and mewling;

Then very pissed off with one's schooling;

Then fucks; and then fights;

Then judging chaps' rights;

Then sitting in slippers; then drooling.

Use in pop culture and music

In the BBC series The Prisoner: In the episode "Once Upon a Time", Number Two (played by Leo McKern) takes Number Six (played by Patrick McGoohan) to a place called the "Embryo Room" to reenact the Six Stages (minus the "lover" stage) in order to break him (Number Six) and reveal why he resigned from his job. Number Two even quotes some of the opening lines from the passage. The result: Number Two and Number Six both have psychotic breakdowns. Number Six, comes to his senses and survives the ordeal. Number Two dies.

A song entitled "The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge Is Unquenchable" from the album Bone Palace Ballet by the post-hardcore band Chiodos uses "All the world's a stage" as a lyric several times. Former frontman Craig Owens also has the quote tattooed on his collarbone.

In the comic book V for Vendetta, the titular character uses the line (one of many Shakespearean references).

"All the World's a Stage" is the title of the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of the American television series Ugly Betty.

"All the World's a Stage" is the title of Rush's 1976 live album. In addition, a variation of the phrase appears in Rush's 1981 song "Limelight": 'All the world's indeed a stage, And we are merely players: Performers and portrayers, Each another's audience, Outside the gilded cage.'

In the Doctor Who episode 'The Shakespeare Code', David Tennant's Tenth Doctor utters the opening line of the speech to Shakespeare in passing. Shakespeare jokily retorts 'I might use that.'

In the 1926 song Are You Lonesome Tonight?, most famously covered in 1960 by Elvis Presley, the lyric includes a spoken passage stating that "You know someone said that the world's a stage, and each must play a part...". The passage was added to the song by Blue Barron in 1950.

Weezer's 2008 single, The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn), uses the line, and shows the way the quote has fit the context of the narrator's life.

The webcomic Seven Years in Dog-Land is divided into seven chapters, each depicting one year spent by the protagonist Alice in a fictional world of dogs. Alice's behavior and fate in each year corresponds with each stage as depicted in Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man.

See also

• Riddle of the Sphinx
• Solomon Grundy
• Six Ages of the World
• Ages of Man