decision.’’ In giving the speech to Jaques, Shake-
speare makes a tired cliche ́ ‘‘dramatically effec-
tive.’’ His audience pays attention to old ideas
because the speaker is obviously ill-suited to
deliver the words. This tactic makes both the
words and the speaker more compelling.
It is appropriate that the speaker in ‘‘Seven
Ages of Man’’ is a man, since the speech is about
the male experience. In his book,The Seven Ages
of Human Experience, David Bevington points
out that ‘‘Shakespeare’s conception of human
experience is that of the male,’’ which is to be
expected. While male and female infants might
cry and puke, only boys went to school in Shake-
speare’s time and only men court women. The
occupations listed are the occupations of men—
soldier and justice, and as he ages, it is a manly
voice that is diminished. Shakespeare’s view is
the male view, and since women in Shakespeare’s
world were limited to marriage and childbirth,
any description of their ages, would have been
decidedly brief. Thus it is a real irony that the
most memorable and strongest character in As
You Like Itis a woman, whose actions counter
Bevington’s ideas about Shakespeare’s male
view. It is Rosalind who does the courting, not
the male lover.
The contrast between Jaques’s pessimism
and Rosalind’s optimism is worth noting, since
the contrast is so significant. When asked by
Rosalind if he is a melancholy fellow, Jaques
responds that he loves melancholy ‘‘better than
laughing.’’ In contrast, strong, articulate Rosa-
lind knows what she wants and makes sure that
she gets it. She plays the pursuing lover and woos
Orlando, despite the fact that he is an absolutely
terrible poet, proven by these lines from a poem
Orlando composes for Rosalind:
Thus Rosalind of many parts
By heavenly synod was devised
Of many faces, eyes, and hearts
To have the touches dearest prized.
Heaven would that she these gifts should
have
And I to live and die her slave.
Although he does not specifically mention
her eyebrows, Orlando could be a model for the
sighing lover with the ‘‘woeful ballad’’ of
Jaques’s speech. Rosalind labels this poem a
‘‘tedious homily of love’’ that ‘‘wearied’’ the lis-
teners. The poetaster Orlando is an unworthy
match for the much more articulate Rosalind.
When he says he will die if she will not marry
him, she responds realistically: ‘‘Men have died
from time to time, and worms have eaten them,
but not for love.’’ Thus, she undercuts his
romantic posturing. All men will die, as Jaques
makes clear in his speech, but they do not die
from unrequited love.
InShakespeare: The Invention of the Human,
Harold Bloom suggests that Jaques’s primary
role is to serve as a counter to the far wittier
Rosalind, who is the real star of the play. As
Bloom points out, not all infants cry incessantly
or puke constantly. In fact, it turns out that
Jaques is a poor critic of his world. In act 4,
Jaques returns to the ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’
with his own commentary on his words. When
challenged by Rosalind, he tells her:
I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which
is emulation, nor the musician’s, which is fan-
tastical, nor the courtier’s, which is proud, nor
the soldier’s, which is ambitious, nor the law-
yer’s, which is politic, nor the lady’s, which is
nice, nor the lover’s, which is all these: but it is a
melancholy of mine own, compounded of
many simples, extracted from many objects,
and indeed the sundry contemplation of my
travels, in which my often rumination wraps
me in a most humorous sadness.
Jaques lists seven groups, thus recalling his
earlier ‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ speech. Rosalind
responds to this speech by acknowledging that
Jaques’s experiences may have allowed him to
see much but that he has gained nothing from his
experience. Rosalind further chides Jaques that
all his experience has only made him sad and left
him with little appreciation for all that he has
seen and done. Indeed, Jaques’s melancholy
affects him so severely that Rosalind fears that
he would ‘‘almost chide God’’ for making him
the man he is. Jaques has neither the melancholy
of the student nor that of the soldier nor the
melancholy of the justice nor that the lover nor
the melancholy of any other being. He neglects
to mention the infant by name who is incapable
of melancholy or the aged, whom he perhaps
believes to be past envy. But Jaques’s life is filled
with unhappiness, which he cherishes and nur-
tures. His willingness to embrace his unhappi-
ness casts his speech into a whole new light.
‘‘Seven Ages of Man’’ is spoken by a man,
whose view of the world is colored by his own
bitterness. Though appearing true, his words
cannot be fully trusted.
Finally, it is important to know that Jaques’s
speech is satirized when Touchstone in act 5Seven Ages of Man