The Seven Ages of Man

 You know Shakespeare, even if you don’t think you do. If you’ve ever said ‘a wild goose chase’, or ‘let’s break the ice’ or ‘good riddance’, or if you’ve used the term ‘brave new world’, ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ or ‘all that glitters is not gold’, you’re quoting Shakespeare, Falstaff.

 One of Bill’s best-known soliloquies begins with ‘All the world's a stage’, from As You Like It. In that soliloquy, he writes about the Seven Ages of Man: infant, child, lover, soldier, justice, old man, extreme old age/second childhood. (Yes, ‘seven ages of man’ is a patriarchal construct, but it was written in patriarchal times, so there’s that).  

The older you get, the more resonant the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ becomes, mostly because we live through these ages as we meander along life’s pathway. The idea behind ‘seven ages’ dates to the twelfth century, but Shakespeare put it into the words that define it today. Others have depicted the Seven Ages of Man in painting, tapestry and stained glass. Perhaps the best stained glass rendering is in Washington, D.C., at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Each ‘age of man’ is represented in a separate panel within the larger work.  

-Tom New (who likes to think he’s in the Justice stage, but is probably more comfortable in his slippered pantaloons).