Poem: "The Seven Ages of Man" by William Shakespeare

Detail from the Seven Ages of Man, with labels added (William Mulready, 1838) (Wikimedia)

This speech, from Shakespeare's As You Like It, begins by comparing our lives to that of an actor on a stage. (I have divided the fifth line to show where the break occurs.) Next he takes us--well, men, actually--through what has been called "The Seven Ages of Man." (Sorry, ladies). They are: 1. the infant; 2. the schoolboy (childhood); 3. the lover (adolescence); 4. the soldier (young adulthood); 5. the justice (middle age); 6. the pantaloon (old age); and 7. senility and death.

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.
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At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, 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 honor, 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 slippered 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.

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Some words and notes, by section:

1. the infant

• Mewling and puking: crying and spitting up

2. childhood (the schoolboy)

• whining: complaining
• satchel: bookbag
• creeping like snail / Unwillingly: no one loves school, even then!

3. adolescence (the lover)

• Sighing like furnace: the stereotype of "puppy love," heaving sighs like a kind of stove used for melting metal
• with a woeful ballad / Made to his mistress' eyebrow: writing sill love songs on trivial things

4. young adulthood (the soldier)

• Full of strange oaths: swearing a lot
• bearded like the pard: with a beard like a leopard
• sudden and quick in quarrel: always looking for a fight
• Seeking the bubble reputation / Even in the cannon's mouth: risking death to win fame and glory

5. middle age (the justice)

• In fair round belly with good capon lined: grown fat on rich foods (a capon is a kind of specially-fattened chicken)
• Full of wise saws and modern instances: saying proverbs and giving examples

6. old age (the pantaloon)

• the lean and slippered pantaloon: a skinny old man wearing slippers; "Pantalone" was a "stock character" of a silly-looking old man in some Italian dramas
• With spectacles on nose and pouch on side: eyeglasses, and maybe a small moneybag
• His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank: his legs have gotten skinny, so his stockings are too big
• and his big manly voice / Turning again toward childish treble, pipes / And whistles in his sound: his voice has become high again, like a child's

7. senility and death (second childishness and oblivion)

• second childishness: senility, a loss of short-term memory and awareness
• mere oblivion: having been forgotten, or become non-existent
• sans: "without," so he lost his teeth, eyes, taste, and everything.

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And there we are: a rather pessimistic view of human life as an infant, child, teenager, young adult, middle aged person, senior, and the senile person near death.

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QUESTION:

How do these stages compare with your observations? Was Shakespeare "right"? (And what stage are you in?)