‘‘a vision of the play that powerfully captures the
dramatic movement from pain and fear to rec-
onciliation and love.’’ But these two critics dis-
agreed on the famous speech: Whereas
Billington thought that Jaques’s rendering of
‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ characterizes each of the
seven ages so well ‘‘that he literally pipes and
whistles as a wheezing old man,’’ Spencer
thought that the same actor ‘‘milks the Seven
Ages of Man speech a little too strenuously.’’
During the same season, the Globe Theatre
in London also stagedAs You Like It. Spencer
also reviewed this production, which he found
‘‘funnier and sunnier,’’ than the production at
Stratford-upon-Avon and ‘‘almost continuously
enchanting.’’ Spencer also traced ‘‘a constant feel-
ing of wit, mischief and strong sexual attraction’’
in this production. Although Spencer did not
mention the ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ specifically,
he did claim that ‘‘almost every role comes to
life in a production that combines great gales of
audience laughter with magical moments of emo-
tional depth,’’ during which the audience ‘‘seems
to be holding its breath.’’ In a review for the
Observer, Kate Kellaway admitted she ‘‘has
never before seen a production belong as natu-
rally to the Globe’s space’’ as this production of
As You Like It. This is a production, Kellaway
stated, with ‘‘perfect comic punctuation,’’ but it is
Jaques, who ‘‘steals the show’’ and who brings a
‘‘languid wit, intelligence, and damaged complex-
ity to the role.’’ Although Kellaway did not spe-
cifically mention the ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ speech
in her review, clearly she found that the actor who
delivered the speech, did so exceedingly well.
These two productions ofAs You Like Ittook
place 410 years after Shakespeare wrote the
speech and the play, and yet audiences continued
to enjoy both just as much as they likely did when
they were produced in Shakespeare’s time.
CRITICISMSheri Metzger Karmiol
Karmiol teaches literature and drama at The Uni-
versity of New Mexico, where she is a lecturer in
the University Honors Program. In this essay, she
discusses what ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ reveals about
the speaker, Jaques, in Shakespeare’s comedy,As
You Like It.
‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ is not a stand-alone
poem. It is a speech fromAs You Like It,oneof
WHAT
DO I READ
NEXT?The Merry Wives of Windsor(1592) makes fun
of the romantic musings of an old man, who
thinks he is still young enough to chase women.
Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well
(1602–1606) is a comedy that explores the
foolishness of youth and the plight of the
aging, who hope that the young will prove
capable of taking on the obligations of
adulthood.
Shakespeare usesThe Tragedy of King Lear
(1607–1608) to explore the conflicting inter-
ests of parents and adult children and to
expose the foolish decisions of two aging
men.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the third Arden edi-
tion (1997), contains modern translations of
each sonnet to help students better under-
stand Shakespeare’s poetry.
The Complete Poems and Translations, the
2007 Penguin edition, is a good place to
begin a study of Christopher Marlowe’s
poetry, which also shows the influence of
the pastoral.
Elizabethan Poetry: An Anthology(2005),
edited by Bob Blaisell, is an inexpensive col-
lection of some of the most popular poetry
of Shakespeare’s age.
Wayne Booth edited the collection of prose
and poetryThe Art of Growing Older: Writ-
ers on Living and Aging(1996). These selec-
tions, which include authors from various
literary periods, suggest that old age is not
quite as dismal as Shakespeare’s ‘‘Seven
Ages of Man’’ suggests.
David Woolger edited the anthologyWho
Do You Think You Are? Poems About People
(1990), which includes poetry by more than
eighty poets from the eighth to the twentieth
century. Woolger includes many writers
from various cultures and covers a variety
of topics, including youth and age, getting
along with people, dealing with emotions,
and social problems.Seven Ages of Man