William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright born in 1564 who is considered one of the greatest writers in the English language. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems. Shakespeare compares the stages of a man's life to the stages of a play, with seven ages representing infancy, childhood, lover, soldier, justice, old man, and second childhood before death. The poem examines the characteristics of each stage and how a man's roles change as he progresses through life.
2. William Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564. He
was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English
language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is
often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of
Avon". His extant works, including collaborations,
consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of
uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into
every major living language and are performed more
often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon
Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne
Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna,
and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585
and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an
actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called
the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's
Men. He died on 23 April 1616
3. Themes
The world is a stage. Men and women are the
actors.
The prince of poets and the kings of dramatists,
William Shakespeare projects the idea that a
man’s life can be dived into seven stages. The
present poem “The Seven Ages” is an extract
taken from the Shakespeare’s play “As you like
it”. The poet compares this world to a stage of a
theatre and all its men and women to actors and
actresses. They take birth, play seven different
roles and die. These seven stages of man’s life
are that of an infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier,
justice, old pantaloon and ‘second childishness’.
After playing these roles and living through
these stages of life, man departs from this
world. It ends the strange and eventful history of
his life.
4. Stanza 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
Explanation – This world is like a stage in a theatre. All the
men and women are the only actors of this stage of life. As the
actors have their entrances and exits in the play, men and
women come into this world when they are born and go away
from it when they die. A man has to play many parts in his
lifetime. He plays and enacts seven stages of life.
5. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. What does the world here mean ?
2. Who are the actors of this stage of life ?
3. What does the sentence ‘They have their exits
and entrances’ mean ?
6. Stanza 2
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
Explanation – The first stage of life is that of an infant. He is
always crying and vomiting in his nurse’s arms. The second stage
is that of a schoolboy who is complaining as he is not interested
in going to his school. With his shining morning face and small bag
over his shoulder, he is walking slowly towards his school, inching
like a snail.
7. Answer these questions from the
given extract.
1. What is the first stage of
life?
2. What does the baby do in
the nurse’s arms ?
3. Who is not interested in
going to the school?
8. Stanza 3
And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Explanation – The third stage is of a lover. He sighs like a
furnace. He writes a very sad love song to his mistress in
Praise of her eyebrow.
9. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. Who is being described in the above lines ?
2. What does ‘Sighing like a furnace’ express?
3. What does ‘A woeful ballad’ mean ?
10. Explanation – The fourth stage
is that of a soldier. A soldier
is full of strange oaths or
promises and keeps a beard like
that of a leopard. He always
runs after honour and fame. He
is ready even to enter a cannon’s
mouth just for momentary fame
and reputation.
Stanza 4
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.
11. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. Who is full of strange oaths in the above
stanza ?
2. What does bubble reputation mean ?
3. How is the soldier similar to a pard ?
12. Stanza 5
And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part.
Explanation – The next stage of life is that of a judge. He has
a big round belly as he is so fond of eating big and fat male
chickens. He is a man of severe or hard looks. He wears beard of
formal cut. He is very intelligent and full of wise sayings and
modern examples. And so the justice plays his own role.
13. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. Who has a big round belly ?
2. How does the man look like ?
3. What does ‘Capon’ mean here ?
14. Stanza 6
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.
Explanation – In the sixth stage of life, a man turns into a
lean and thin, slipper wearing pantaloon with loose trousers. He
wears glasses on nose and keeps a small bag of leather on his side.
He bought stockings in youth and have saved them well. Those
produces whistles and piping sounds like a child as he speaks.
15. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. Which stage is being talked about here ?
2. What kind of life does a man lead in this
stage?
3. What is the meaning of ‘Treble’?
16. Stanza 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.
Explanation – The last which ends the eventful life history of
man is second childishness and mere forgetfulness. In this stage
man loses teeth, looses taste, looses eyes and everything.
17. Answer these questions from the given extract.
1. What happens to man in the last stage ?
2. The poet calls all these stages a strange eventful
history. Why ?
3. What does ‘Oblivion’ mean here ?
18. WordmeaningsI. Merely – Only
II. Mewling – Crying
III.Puking – Vomiting
IV. Satchel – A small bag
V. Woeful – Very sad
VI. Capon – A big male chicken
VII.Saws – Sayings
VIII.Lean – Thin
IX. Treble – High-pitched sound
X. Sans – Without
XI. Oblivion – Unaware with
something
XII.Fair – (here ) Very large
19. Questions & Answers
Long answer type question
1. What is the first stage of life? Write briefly.
2. Compare the third stage and sixth stage.
3. According to Shakespeare, how does a man look like in
his fifth stage of life?
4. Explain the last scene of ‘ THE SEVEN AGES’.
20. Answers
1. The first and foremost act of every human being is the stage of
infancy, where he makes his presence felt by crying at the top of his
voice and many a times vomiting any food or drink that is repulsive,
at the nursing arms of his mother. This period normally last till four
years of age.
2. In the third stage, man plays the role of a lover. He is always sighing
like a furnace for his beloved he is of romantic temperament. He
writes woefull ballads praising the beauty of the eyebrows of his
beloved. But in sixth stage a man becomes weak and thin. He looks
funny with his slippers, spectacles on nose a dna pouch on his side.
3. In the fifth stage of life, man works as a justice. He grows in size and
his belly become capon sized by eating the chickens. He has severe
eyes and possesses a beard of formal cut. He is very intelligent and
full of wise sayings. He expresses wisdom by sayings and modern
instances.
21. Answers
4. The last stage is the old-age where he enters his second childhood. It
is also the beginning of the end of his eventful history. It is also the
stage of oblivion, the state of being completely forgotten or
unknown, the state of forgetting and official disregard or overlooking
of offenses. He is without everything, without teeth, eyes and taste.
