American Old Time Song Lyrics: 24 Shakespeares Seven Ages Of Man

Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 24

Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man.
By Shakespeare.

This charming epitome of human life affords, in its brief space,
almost every variety of expression. Running the gamut from the
faint moan of infancy to the resonant base of manhood-again
declining to the low, weak cadence of senility and feebleness:
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;
And 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' eye-brow: 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 slipper'd 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 to childish treble pipes
And whistles in his sound: Last scene all.
That ends the strange eventful history,
The second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.