Tuesday 3 May 2011

All The World's Stage


All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exists and their entrances,
And one man in this time plays many parts,
His acts being sever 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 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 a 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 hiss 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 the second childishness and more oblivion, 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Author: William Shakespeare

xx

No comments:

Post a Comment