contrivance of rigid rhyme schemes. More-
over, it sounds like natural speech. Blank
verse allows the dramatist the freedom to cre-
ate different speaking styles for characters.
Although other poets experimented with
blank verse, Christopher Marlowe was the
first Elizabethan poet to master the form.
Shakespeare quickly adopted it, as did other
Elizabethan and Jacobean poets, including
John Milton, who used blank verse in his nar-
rative epics, such asParadise Lost.Blankverse
is effectively used in ‘‘Seven Ages of Man,’’ to
convey the speaker’s natural speech patterns.
Extended Metaphor
A metaphor is an analogy that describes one
object in terms of another and ascribes to one
object the qualities of the second object. The
metaphor may be simple, meaning it contains a
single comparison, or complex, meaning it incor-
porates many parallels. ‘‘Seven Ages of Man,’’
presents an extended metaphor. The initial cor-
respondence is between the world and a stage in
a theater. Coupled with this first pair is the idea
that people living their lives are akin to players
on stage acting out their roles. The sounds peo-
ple make during their lives, and how over time
those sounds change, are equated with the voices
used by actors as they deliver their lines. The
different periods of life are equated with the
different acts in a play. The curtain goes up at
birth, the first act, and it falls with death, the
final act. The suggestion of this extended meta-
phor is that life itself is a performance, and each
person is destined to play his part.
Monologue
A monologue is a speech spoken by only one
person and delivered to someone who is both
present and listening. In ‘‘Seven Ages of Man,’’
the speaker is Jaques, a character inAs You Like
It. This speaker is angry and disappointed, and
his attitude tinges his monologue with cynicism.Simile
A simile is a figure of speech in which two dis-
similar subjects are compared, using the words
likeoras.The comparison is expressed directly.
For example, in ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ at line 9,
the lover’s sigh is compared to a furnace.
Although a lover and furnace are very different
in many ways, they have in common their output
of hot air. That a person can expel as much hot
air as a furnace is an example of hyperbole,
meaning gross exaggeration; hyperbole is used
for effect or emphasis.Historical Context
Life in Shakespeare’s London
By the end of the sixteenth century, about
200,000 people lived in London, making it the
largest city in Europe. About half of the popula-
tion lived within the walls of the city, with the
remainder living in the suburbs. The city itself
stretched only about a mile in length along the
north side of the Thames River. London was
surrounded by open countryside and within the
city there were gardens and trees, too, but within
the city walls, many streets were narrow, pol-
luted with animal and human waste, and dis-
ease-ridden. Given that there was no sewer
system, inhabitants relied upon ditches along-
side the streets and alleys to carry refuge and
human waste to the Thames, where it was
dumped. The lack of sanitation led to the spread
of disease. There were no city lights, and crimi-
nals loitered in the streets. Houses of prostitu-
tion and the theaters, including Shakespeare’s
Globe Theatre, were located outside the city
walls, along the south side of the Thames.
In London at this time the life expectancy at
birth was only thirty years. That does not mean
that most people only lived to be thirty years old;
there were many people who lived to an
advanced age. However, infant mortality rates
were high in Shakespeare’s time, and half of all
children born in poverty died before age fifteen.Illustration of the Seven Ages of Man(ÓMary Evans
Picture Library / Alamy)
Seven Ages of Man