As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599

and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a
performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility.
As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court,
accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the
forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy
traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches (such as "All the
world's a stage", "too much of a good thing" and "A fool! A fool! I met a fool in the forest"). Jaques
provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the
hardships of life in the country.
Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the play a work of great merit and
some finding the work of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works. The play remains a
favourite among audiences and has been adapted for radio, film, and musical theatre. The piece has
been a favorite of famous actors on stage and screen, notably Vanessa Redgrave, Juliet
Stevenson, Maggie Smith, Rebecca Hall, Helen Mirren, and Patti LuPone in the role of Rosalind
and Alan Rickman, Stephen Spinella, Kevin Kline, Stephen Dillane, and Ellen Burstyn in the role of
Jaques.

"THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN" LESSON

PLAN
Using the 2009 Utah Shakespearean Festival education calendar to help teach As You Like It
This lesson can be completed as an introduction to the play or when the class has read the soliloquy
of “The seven ages of man.”
Title:
The Stages of Life
Time needed:
Two ninety-minute class periods or two or three forty-minute class periods
Age level:
Middle and high school students
Objective:
Students will demonstrate an understanding of Shakespeare’s text by interpreting meaning through
discussion, movement, and writing. Also, students will be able to understand that Shakespeare’s
words and ideas are still relevant and applicable today.
Materials:
• Copies of the soliloquy “The seven ages of man,” with each of the seven ages on a different sheet
of paper (As You Like It, 2.7.139–166)
• The 2009 education calendar from the Utah Shakespearean Festival, available by calling the
Festival education office at 435-865-8333 (optional)
Anticipatory set/hook:
Have the students write about a memorable moment (such as moving, transitioning into high school,
going on a first date, etc.) in their life. How old were they? What were their actions and reactions to
this moment? How and why did this moment affect/change your life? The teacher could provide an
example to model what the students are to do.
Process:
1. Now, invite a few students to share what they wrote. Ask the class to respond to the following
question: If you were to live for seventy years, what kinds of stages (moments of transition, moments
of change) would you encounter in your lifetime? How many stages could you have? During the
discussion, have a scribe write down the responses on the board.
2. Now display or hand out copies of the soliloquy divided into seven parts, and divide the class into
seven groups (between three and five students per group). Explain that Shakespeare discussed
seven stages that men and women encounter in their lifetimes. Not yet knowing how Shakespeare
divided up the seven ages of man, have each group only read the passage that they were given and
decide upon its meaning/ stage in life. Out of the seven stages described by Shakespeare, what
number is their stage? How do they justify their decision?
3. Have each group explain to the rest of the class what stage of man their passage describes.
Someone can make a tally on the board to show the stage that is chosen by each group. Next, bring
out the calendar and go through the various stages and the images that reflect the stages of man
outlined in the soliloquy. Did groups guess the right stage? What was their thinking behind their
guess?
4. It is now time to show some creativity and interpretation of the text. Have each group create a
“sculpture” or frozen scene from the members of their group to represent the stage of man that is
being discussed in their passage. It should not be the exact same image that is shown on the
calendar. If they need assistance with definitions of the words used in the text, have a computer or
dictionary available for research. Everyone will present their sculpture/scene for the class, and those
in the audience will decide what stage of man is being represented. What words did they have to
look up? What did they discover?
5. Now bring the concept of the seven ages of man into modern times by asking a couple of
questions—What are the seven “ages” of a high school student? What seven “roles” do they play?
What are seven “players” in high school?
6. Depending on time, have them write their own soliloquy/speech/poem that answers one of the
three questions above. If there isn’t enough time in class, they can finish it as homework. If you want
to devote another class period to this, have the students perform their writing for the class.
Tools for Assessment:
The teacher will assess the students’ understanding of the outlined objective by evaluating how
groups interpret meaning of the text through discussion, performance of their sculpture/scene, and
through their writing assignment of a soliloquy/speech/poem.

Seven Ages of Man lesson

1. Do YOU set YOUR OWN course? If LIFE is a JOURNEY, then WHO's driving? Do YOU
make YOUR OWN choices about where to turn and how far to drive? Do you feel you're
FOLLOWING a course SET by SOMEONE ELSE? ARE YOU IN CHARGE OF YOUR OWN
DESTINY?

2. Where do YOU see YOURSELF in FIVE years? In 10 years? In 15 years? What choices will
you have to make to achieve these GOALS? Answer in at least five sentences.

3. LIST ALL the THINGS you FEEL like YOU ARE in CONTROL of in YOUR LIFE. (1
minute) LIST ALL the THINGS you FEEL like OTHERS CONTROL in YOUR LIFE. (1
minute)

4. Narrative Poem The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare - a form of poetry that tells
a story, often making use of the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is
usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not have to follow rhythmic patterns.

5. • Infer thoughts, feelings, and intentions in the material viewed OBJECTIVE

6. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE • William Shakespeare was born on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-
Upon-Avon. At an extremely young age, Shakespeare showed interest in literature and
eventually became an actor, dramatist, and an English poet. Shakespeare created many comedic
plays such as "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Much Ado About Nothing", and "As You Like
It". Shakespeare also wrote many tragedies such as "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", and
"Macbeth". Shakespeare's sentences were usually fragmented or contained inversions. His
comedies usually show the character solving problems in humorous ways, while his tragedies
show the character dueling with his fate. To Americans all around the world , Shakespeare is
considered the greatest poet and actor ever. The Poet

7. • Mewling • pard • Capon • Pantaloon • Shank • Sans • woeful UNLOCKING OF

UNFAMILIAR WORDS • Without, lacking • a thin, foolish old man • Expressing mourning,
sadness or loss • whimpering, crying like a baby • a roasted chicken • Leg • leopard Mewling
pard Capon Pantaloon Shank Sans woeful

8. WHAT ARE THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN?

9. WHAT ARE THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN? Infant Schoolboy Lover soldier justice
Pantaloon and old age facing imminent death

10. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS 1. What do BABIES do? 2. What do school-age children

experience? 3. What are the characteristics of a LOVER? 4. What are the characteristics of a
LOVER? 5. What do “wise” adults do? 6. Describe the sixth age. 7. What happens when we get
old?

11. GROUP WORK! YOUR GROUP WILL: 1. BE ASSIGNED A STAGE FROM THE
POEM. 2. DISCUSS THE CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITIES THAT MAKE UP YOUR
ASSIGNED STAGE. 3. CREATE A POSTER THAT LISTS THE STAGE, THE LINES FROM
THE POEM THAT PERTAINS TO THE STAGE, THE QUALITIES/CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE STAGE AND AT LEAST 2 PICTURES THAT DEPICT THE STAGE. 4. BE PREPARED
TO DISCUSS YOUR POSTER WITH THE CLASS. 5. USE YOUR TIME WISELY! YOU
HAVE TEN MINUTES!!! AFTER THE READING... REFLECT –

All the world's a stage

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This article is about the Shakespeare monologue. For the live album by Rush, see All the World's a
Stage (album). For the television episode, see All the World's a Stage (Ugly Betty).

The line "all the world's a stage [...]" from Shakespeare's First Folio[1]

Richard Kindersley's sculpture The Seven Ages Of Man in London

"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:[2] infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone and old age, facing
imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare's most frequently quoted passages.
Text[edit]
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.
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 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 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.

Origins[edit]

The Seven Ages of Man by William Mulready, 1838, illustrating the speech
World as a stage[edit]
The comparison of the world to a stage and people to actors long predated Shakespeare. Juvenal,
the ancient Roman poet, wrote one of the earliest versions of this line in his “Satire 3”: “All of Greece
is a stage, and every Greek’s an actor.” [3] Richard Edward's play Damon and Pythias, written in the
year Shakespeare was born, contains the lines, "Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage /
Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the sage".[4] When it was founded in 1599
Shakespeare's own theatre, The Globe, may have used the motto Totus mundus agit histrionem (All
the world plays the actor), the Latin text of which is derived from a 12th-century treatise.[5] Ultimately
the words derive from quod fere totus mundus exercet histrionem (because almost the whole world
are actors) attributed to Petronius, a phrase which had wide circulation in England at the time.
In his own earlier work, The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also had one of his main
characters, Antonio, comparing the world to a stage:
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

— Act I, Scene I

In his work The Praise of Folly, first printed in 1511, Renaissance humanist Erasmus asks, "For what
else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director
motions them off the stage."[6]

Ages of man[edit]
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 mediaeval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven
deadly sins, for theological reasons. The seven ages model dates from the 12th
century.[7] King Henry V had a tapestry illustrating the seven ages of man.[8]
According to T. W. Baldwin, Shakespeare's version of the concept of the ages of man 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.[9]

What are the seven ages of man?

In Act II, Scene 7 of William Shakespeare's "As You Like It," the jaded, cynical, and melancholy
Jaques outlines what he sees as the seven ages of man, opening with these famous lines:

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.

He continues, then, to expound on the seven ages of man. They are

 1. The infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
2. The whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping
like a snail unwillingly to school.
3. The lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress'
eyebrow.
4. The 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.
(Pard refers to the leopard; the soldier's beard is being compared to a leopard's
whiskers.)
5. 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.
(A capon is a fattened chicken prepared as a delicacy, and lin'dhere means more
like "stuffed." Proverbially, a capon refers to a bribe. Wise saws refers to old
sayings, and modern instances are trite sayings.)
6. 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.
(A pantaloon is a foolish old man.)
7. Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness
and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
(Here, mere means "complete." Second childishness and mere oblivion is a
fancy way of saying "old age and death.")

In the poem, Seven Ages of Man Shakespeare compares the entire world to a theatrical stage, where
all the human beings perform their allotted role given by the God. Every individual has to go through
seven acts that are seven stages of man’s life.

The first stage, in this phase of his life man, appears as a child in the world. As a child, he is a
helpless creature. He cries in the arms of his nurse for one reason or the other. He cries and vomits.

The next phase of his life man appears as a child in the world. He goes to school with a bag hanging
from his shoulder. He goes to the school creeping like a snail. He marches to the school unwillingly.

In the third stage of his life, a man plays the part of a lover. He grows into a young man full of
desires, ambitions, and dreams. He becomes a romantic young man. He falls in love and sights like a
furnace. He begins to write sad poems to his beloved he cannot control his sad feelings.

In the fourth stage of his life man becomes a foul-mouthed soldier who has learned queer words at
this stage, he tries to give himself a formidable look with a beard like a part. He is emotional and
jealous. He quarrels with others for his honor and grace. He hankers after temporary and bubble
fame.
In the fifth stage of his life, he becomes a judge. He becomes mature and experienced in his thoughts.
The heat of youth has completely cooled down and he becomes very realistic. He wishes to grab
wealth by foul or fair means. He begins to accept bribe and thus adds much to his material comforts.
He becomes ease-loving and therefore becomes fat. His belly becomes round. He eats healthy fowls
and chicken presented to him as a bribe. His eyes become severe and he grows the beard of formal
cut.

Then, in the sixth stage of his life, man grows old. He looks quite ridiculous in his movements. He
wears glasses because his eyesight is weak. His shoes become wide for his feet. His voice suffers a
change. It becomes a shrill and quivering whistle.

However, in the final stage, the man turns into a child once again. He seems to forget everything. He
becomes ‘toothless’. His eyesight is weakened and he is deprived of taste. He is ready to leave this
world.

Shakespeare has the seven stages of man’s life with a touch of satire and cynicism. In each stage,
man imagines himself great and important, but there is something ridiculous in his behavior all
through his life. Shakespeare has described each of the man’s life stage with great economy of
words. He uses living and concrete images to describe the different stages of life. The use of the
word ‘mewling’ of the infant’s cry and the school boy’s reluctance for going to school described in
phases ‘creeping like a snail’ are examples of living images.