Seven Ages of Man
William Shakespeare’s ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ is a
speech from his comedyAs You Like It. The lines
may have been written as early 1599, but the play
did not appear in print until the First Folio was
published in 1623. (A folio is a book that meas-
ures about fifteen inches tall, which consists of
folded sheets of paper nested together in six
quires and hand-sewn.) The playAs You Like
Itshows the influences of earlier pastoral poetry,
but its plot also suggests the court intrigue and
economic disorder of the late Elizabethan Age.
Both of these influences are evident in the
excerpted part, called ‘‘Seven Ages of Man.’’
These twenty-seven lines are a monologue from
act 2, scene 7, lines 138 to 165.As You Like Itis
written in blank verse, that is, unrhymed iambic
pentameter.
The famous monologue ‘‘Seven Ages of
Man’’ describes the several roles that men play
during their lives. Regardless of social class, all
people age, and as they do so they enact many of
the same roles, but except for the infant this
speech describes those that only apply to men.
In the monologue, each role is described in terms
of speech: the infant mews, the schoolboy
whines, the lover sings, the soldier swears, the
justice speaks, the old man’s voice wavers, and
finally as he nears death, his voice is silenced.As
You Like Itis included in all complete editions of
Shakespeare, such as The Oxford Shakespeare:
The Complete Works (2005).As You Like Ithas
also been published separately, for example, by
211WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
1623