All the World's

a Stage
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

About the Poet

and dramatist, lived and
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), poet
I of England. He is almost
Elizabeth
worked during the reign of Queen ot all ane
of the greatest dramatists
as one
universally acknowledged studied a
the

Little is known about his personal

life except that he Hathaway
married Anneilt
Grammar School at Stratford-upon-Avon, wrian
tor

in London. Shakespeare
began
and worked actor
theanlate
the stage in as 1580s. His plays were first collectedin he Further

his plays.
when a
folio edition was published including all Shakespeare

and 1685.
tolio editions appeared in 1632, 1663, 1664 andcha
ry
earliest work as a dramatist, were the three parts of ric
and poo
plays
dates from 1590-1. After this he wrote numerous as A
Midsu
M i l s u m m e

comedies
such and luelt

among the better known ones being Lai

Night's Dream, As You Like It, The Merchant of v and
Kny
eth,

Macbet
Othello, the Sonnets (prne
gDt, and tragedies such as Hamlet, in the
T hR
e y
s fourteen-line poems were collected
and
1609), and his longer poems were Venus
of Lucrece
 All the Worlds a Stage 57
About the Poem
This
passage is taken from
Tt (Act II, scene Shakespeare's famous comedy, As You Like
vii), and is uttered
cynical philosopher who likes tobycomment
the character
of a Jacques-a sort
on the
aspects of life and the world. Here he more
negative
of a human life in terms of chooses to record the progress
seven
stages or phases. There is gradual a
metamorphosis from one stage to the other, from childhood to senility,
when the human
being
of life presented here is
finally passes into death and oblivion. The view
coloured by the cynical vision of
need not
necessarily represent Shakespeares. However, there Jacques, and
is truth a
to reality in the whole
portrayal.
humans actors in it is successful tool
The metaphor of life as play and a
as a to hang his
and it reduces all human life to philosophy on,
a universal pattern.

All the World's a

Stage
All the world's a
stage,
And all the and women merely players;
men
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time
plays many parts,
is being seven ages. At first the infant,
acts

Mewling and puking in the nurses arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And
shining morning face, creeping like snail
nwillingly school. And then the lover,
to
ighing like furnaace, with woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' a

Full of eyebrow. Then soldier, a

strangeoaths, and bearded like the pard,

honour,
Seekin g sudden and quick in quarrel,
Even in the
t bubble reputation
E
n fair roundCannons mouth. And rhen the justice,
Wih eyes severbelly with good capon liund,
ed
all of severe and beard of
ullof wise saws and
And so he
And
formal cut,
modern instances;
Into the leanplays his part. The sixth shifts
the an
and slipperd pantaloon,age
 Pearls of Wisdom
58
and pouch on side:
on nose
With spectacles savd,: world too wide
His youthful
hose, well
shank; and his big manly voice,
For his shrunk treble, pipes
childish
toward
Turning again sound. Last s c e n e
of all,
in his
And whistles eventful history
That ends this strange
childishness and mere oblivion;
Is second sans everything.
sans taste,
Sans teeth,
sans eyes,

Glossary to a stage on whih

is compared
All the world's the entire world
part assigned
to The each.

human beings play a a drama which

that life itself is like
a stage:
implication is life played in

unfolds with each persons

pre-destined fashion.
The implication
here is thar
a
puppets;
merely players: mere
in a large play a
human beings are only a c t o r s they
the parts that
i

control over
really have n o
destined to pertorm. in this
needs to play a part
His acts being each person
and there are
seven
a
seven ages: enactment of human life,
drama.
or stages in this
infant
mewling and crying like a n
puking:
satchel: school bag tepresent the scho
humorous way to
represene well-scrubba

shining nmorning a

face: school in the morning, the

DOygoing to reluctant to g0 o ctha

and presentable but

heartaches, so muci"-
sighing like to be full of sighs and fireplace gene
heavy air like
a
furnace: he breathes out
che

smoke
mourning; n he n fa
woeful ballad: of pain and
8 Sung out

for a
beloved
be
lover is sighing and pining s u n g

not secured
made to his lover sings
the ballad or song that the c h o u g h

beauty
mistress' in praise of the beloved and her