The Seven Ages of Man” by William Shakespeare

1. 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.
The world is like the stage of a theatre, and life is like a big drama, in which different men and women
enter (through birth), play their individual parts, and exit (death).

2. At first the infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

Mewling is the small weak noise that a cat makes. The first stage of life is that of a little baby who
succeeds in getting everyone’s attention by alternately crying and vomiting in the arms of his caretaker.
In Jacques' view, even the start of life is filled with dissatisfaction.

3. And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail /
Unwillingly to school.
Haven’t you ever wanted to know why his face was shining? Maybe he was crying and begging his
mother not to send him to school, but she forced him to go anyway. Or maybe he’s been forced to
bathe and wash his face. Either way, he’s dawdling because he hates school.

4. And then the lover,

Youth follows childhood, and love is one of the dominant emotions during that period of a person’s life.

5. Sighing like furnace,

In a furnace the flames shift and flare unpredictably. This is likened to the heavy breathing of a lover
overwhelmed with emotion.

6. with a woeful ballad / Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

The lover is singing a sad ballad to win his love, and his mistress is skeptically observing his song,
evaluating whether or not his love is genuine (Hence the ‘eyebrow’).

7. Then a soldier,
Note that this stage is not exclusive to military. The ‘soldier’ is only metaphor. This is the period of life
when you start taking your job very seriously and you dedicate yourself to a cause, whether it be the
protection of the nation, or simply the upkeep of your family.