THE
SEVEN
AGES
By,
William
Shakespeare.
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 shinning 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.
About The Poet
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-uponAvon, on April 23, 1564 and died in 1616. He is
considered by many to be the greatest dramatist
of all time. He wrote a book 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems and about three dozen
plays. Shakespeare used poetic and dramatic
means to create unified aesthetic effects. In
verse he perfected the dramatic blank verse.
WORD MEANING
1.mewling: crying
2.puking: being sick, vomiting
3.satchel: a small bag, for carrying school book
4.woeful: very sad
5.oaths: solemn promises
6.pard: leopard (a symbol of fierceness in Shakespeare’s
time)
7.cannon: a big gun that fired cannon-balls made of iron
8.justice: judge
9.capon: a male chicken, very big and fat
10.saws: saying
11.slippered: wearing slippers(indoor shoes)
12.pantaloon: a funny old man, on whom other
people play tricks
13.pouch: a soft fold of loose skin that hangs
down, as a result of illness or old age
14.hose: tight-fitting leg coverings
15.shank: legs from the knees to the ankle
16.treble: a high voice
17.oblivion: forgetting everything, and being
forgotten by everybody
18.sans: (pronounced like sone) a French
word meaning without