This passage summarizes William Shakespeare's famous monologue from As You Like It, which compares the stages of a man's life to the stages of a play. It describes the seven ages of man as: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice/prominent person, pantaloon/old man, and second childhood with loss of mental faculties. The poem then further explains each stage as the man progresses from infancy through old age and dementia until death.

1. This is an extract from his play 'As You Like It' where a character (Jacques) describes the seven ages of man as being: The infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, (ie prominent person), pantaloon (old man) and finally second childhood when you lose/forget everything.

3. The man in the poem goes through these stages: Infancy: In this stage he is a baby