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The Seven Ages of Man
by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) was an English poet and playwright. Shakespeare has the reputation of one of the greatest writers in the English language and in Western literature, as well as one of the world's preeminent dramatists.
Source: Wikipedia

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy written for a popular audience, in 1599 or early 1600. As You Like It was listed in the Stationers' Register, the period equivalent of copyright, in August 1600. No printed copy of it is known prior to the publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works in 1623. Though the setting for the play is a duchy in France, Shakespeare's "Forest of Arden" is a pastoral, not a realist setting.
Source: Wikipedia

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Read the famous lines from Shakespeare's play As You Like It, below, and then answer some questions about them. When you have finished, do some writing yourself and see texts written by other readers.

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The Seven Ages of Man

(from As You Like It, II, vii)

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

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Your turn

Compare two or more different ages and send your text to us.

Your texts

A teenager feels pain if nobody breaks her/his heart.
An adult feels pain if somebody breaks her/his heart.
A teenager believes that she/he is the owner of the world.
An adult knows that she/he is not even owner of her/his own life.
A teenager feels that time goes by slowly.
An adult feels she/he wasted her/his life when she/he was a teenager.
A teenager wants to be an adult.
An adult wants to be a teenager again.

Eric Ramirez Rodriguez

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