[Music] thank you William Shakespeare lived around 400 years ago yet his Works continued to be read and dramatized by people around the world Shakespeare is best known for his sonnets and plays as you like it is one of Shakespeare's most enacted comedies The Seven Ages is an excerpt from this play As You Like It is believed to be set in France it features several characters and depicts a variety of themes such as rivalry the thrill of love the phases of human life Intrigue and the differences between urban and rural life The Seven Ages is a monologue by a character named Jacques it occurs in act 2 scene 7 of the play The Seven Ages is one of Shakespeare's most widely quoted speeches all the worlds 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 first the infant muelling 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's eyebrow then a soldier full of strange Oaths and bearded like the pod jealous and honor and sudden and quick in quarrel seeking the bubble reputation even in the Canon's mouth and then the Justice in Fair round belly with good Cape online with eyes severe and beard of formal cut full of wise souls 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 hoes well saved a world too wide for his shrunk shank and his big manly voice turning again to a childish trouble pipes and whistles in his sound last scene of all that ends the strange eventful history is second childishness and mere Oblivion Sans teeth Sans eyes sense taste Sans everything here's a brief summary of The Seven Ages by William Shakespeare the poet compares the world to a stage and the people in the world to actors people are born to play their respective parts and then they pass away during his or her lifetime a person plays seven roles associated with the seven stages of maturity the first stage is infancy in this stage a person plays the role of an infant who cries and vomits in the hands of the nurse he is dependent on others for his physical well-being the second stage is childhood the infant has now grown into a young child who goes to school rather reluctantly perhaps he is unwilling to leave the protected environment of his home or perhaps he is unhappy with the various disciplining forces of life the third stage is adolescence or early youth the person now plays the role of a lover and writes poems to his beloved the fourth stage is youth or early adulthood the person plays the role of a soldier he is bearded and agile like a pod which is an abbreviation of the word leopard he picks fights easily and seeks Fame however short-lived it may be he is at the peak of his physical strength and courage he is even ready to put his life at risk to make a reputation for himself the fifth stage is middle age the fit and rash young man becomes a pot bellied and mature man he is now familiar with the ways of the world and reaches a position of influence in society he plays the role of a judge and passes judgment on various aspects of life the sixth stage is old age and marks the decline of a person he loses weight and his skin begins to Sag his eyesight turns poor his deep masculine voice starts to sound thin and high pitched the seventh stage is that of extreme old age this stage is compared to Second childhood as the person is dependent on others just like a child this is the final phase of a person's life he becomes forgetful and loses his ability to see hear and taste eventually he dies the perm uses the analogy of an actor on stage to depict the seven phases of a person's life from birth to death the poem is about the cycle of life from birth to death a person goes through several stages at first the infant then the whining school boy then the lover next a soldier then the Justice then the lean and slippered pantaloon and the last scene of all the second childishness of man the poem talks about the physical changes a person goes through in his life the infant cradled in the nurse's arms the soldier who is bearded and agile like a pod the Justice in Fair round belly the shrunk old man with his big manly voice turning again toward childish treble and finally a man on his deathbed with none of his five senses functioning Sans teeth Sans eyes Sans taste Sans everything the poem also traces the psychological changes of a person as he grows old he is an emotional lover sighing like a furnace a rash Soldier full of strange Oaths who then transforms into a mature and worldly wise Justice full of wise sores and modern instances then in his old age his mental faculties deteriorate and he suffers from loss of memory or Oblivion in a way the poem is also about mortality let's take the line they have their exits and their entrances entrances refer to birth and exits refer to death later on Shakespeare states that one man in his lifetime plays many parts his acts being Seven Ages these lines emphasize that a person's life is limited to seven phases and at the end of the seventh stage a man slips into mere Oblivion Sands everything in other words a person passes away the poem is centered around the metaphor that the world is a stage all the worlds 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 associated with a stage and the people in the world are equated with actors on stage just like actors have their entrances and exits people are born and eventually die actors are controlled by the director in the same way the people in this world are directed and controlled by their destiny like an actor a person plays many roles in his life the phases of his life are compared to acts in a play Shakespeare has used similes in the poem unwilling to go to school the boy is described as creeping like a snail the lover is shown sighing like furnace the soldier is bearded like the Pard alliterations are also used in the poem for example the sound of p is repeated in place and part W is repeated in well world and wide and Sh is repeated in shrunk Shank the last line of the poem employs repetition to emphasize the unconsciousness of old age and death Sans teeth Sans eyes Sans taste Sans everything foreign [Music]