All the World’s a Stage
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 schoolboy, 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 honor, 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 lined,
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 slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, 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.
William Shakespeare:
Born
- baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown)
- Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died
- 23 April 1616 (aged 52)
- Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Occupation
- playwright, poet, actor
Literary movement
- English Renaissance theatre
Spouse
- Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Children
- Susanna Hall
- Hamnet Shakespeare
- Judith Quiney
Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Histories
King Henry IV Part 1
King Henry IV Part 2
King Henry V
King Henry VI Part 1
King Henry VI Part 2
King Henry VI Part 3
King Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III
Comedies
All’s Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Cymbeline
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Troilus and Cressida
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Winter’s Tale
Poetry
A Lover’s Complaint
Sonnets 1-30
Sonnets 121-154
Sonnets 31-60
Sonnets 61-90
Sonnets 91-120
The Passionate Pilgrim
The Phoenix and the Turtle
The Rape of Lucrece
Venus and Adonis
