{"id":3124,"date":"2008-12-26T19:06:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-27T03:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=3124"},"modified":"2025-09-21T19:19:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T03:19:32","slug":"the-seven-ages-of-man-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=3124","title":{"rendered":"The Seven Ages of Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Adam\u2019s note: As a teenager, I read the works of William Shakespeare, took a class in school, enjoyed the shaping of words, declaiming, enunciating, the feel of his rhythms. (I was in a local high school contest once, where I recited and enacted the \u201ctennis ball\u201d speech in Henry V.) One of my favorite passages was the one that I illustrated here when I was around sixteen years old. The style of cartooning was in part inspired by both the cartoonists and the general thrust of the early satirical MAD<\/em> comic books. Occasionally they\u2019d take a poem, such as Poe\u2019s \u201cThe Raven,\u201d and illustrate it with silly pictures. So here was my version. (I found this among my old papers, yellowed with age.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel and shining morning face,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then the lover, sighing like a furnace,
With a woeful ballad made
   to his mistress’ eyebrow<\/em>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then a soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jealous in honor,
\u00a0 \u00a0 Sudden and quick in quarrel,
\u00a0Seeking the bubble reputation,
\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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
      towards childish treble,
 Pipes and whistles in his sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last scene of all that ends this strange eventful history
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n

\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam\u2019s note: As a teenager, I read the works of William Shakespeare, took a class in school, enjoyed the shaping of words, declaiming, enunciating, the feel of his rhythms. (I was in a local high school contest once, where I recited and enacted the \u201ctennis ball\u201d speech in Henry V.) One of my favorite passages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-mandalas-doodles-scripts","category-favoritethings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3125,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3124\/revisions\/3125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}