Day 4: All The World's A Stage

Last night I went to a production of As You Like It performed by the American Shakespeare Center. It was a very good performance of the play but it is not my favorite of all Shakespeare's plays. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark still takes home the prize as my favorite Shakespeare play. Anyways, in the play that I saw yesterday there was the famous "All the world's a stage" monologue and I thought that would be a very good poem to share with you all.


All the World's a Stage monologue in As You Like It 
by William Shakespeare

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women are 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 a 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 pantaloons,

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 more oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

- Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)

Here is a very interesting version of the poem being acted out for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

This poem, as most of Shakespeare's writing can be considered poetry, is one of his most famous. The most famous part is the first two lines because it seems that those are the only lines anyone remembers. Not much analysis should be done to this poem because it seems (at least to me) very understandable. If you do not understand something don't be afraid to ask about it in the comments. My favorite line in this poem was "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything", mostly because it very well explains old age where one goes to having nothing. Overall, the play As You Like It is a very enjoyable comedy but this monologue was one of the highlights of seeing it performed live. 

As I was looking up information about the monologue I found this compressed limerick written by historian Robert Conquest about the poem above:

Seven ages: first puking and mewling;

Then very p***ed off with one's schooling;

Then f**ks; and then fights;

Then judging chaps' rights;

Then sitting in slippers; then drooling.

Apart from the explicits, it's a very interesting modern way at looking at a poem that was written over four hundred years ago. 

Please, if you have some questions or an opinion on this poem write a comment about it.