As You Like It: All the World's a Stage
Jaques maps a whole human life in seven ages - a gift of a monologue for showing range in two minutes.
Good for: monologue practice, classical monologue, showing range
William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2 Scene 7 (public domain)
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Start rehearsingSetting
The Forest of Arden. JAQUES, the court's resident melancholic, turns a passing remark into a portrait of every life ever lived. Each age is its own beat with its own color - ideal for practicing shifts in tone.
Characters
- JAQUES - A melancholy philosopher who finds the theater in everything.
Voiced by Sadaltager · Premium voice
The Scene
JAQUES
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 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 honour, 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 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.
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How to play this scene
The beats
- Lay out the thesis with quiet showmanship: "All the world's a stage" invites the listener into the conceit.
- Play seven distinct little portraits, each its own tone, from "the infant, mewling and puking" to the pompous "justice, in fair round belly."
- The comedy thins as the body fails: "the lean and slippered pantaloon" is where affection starts to creep in.
- Land the ending unflinching: "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything," each "sans" a candle going out.
Playing it
Your objective is to entertain and to convince. Jaques is performing his worldview for whoever is listening and enjoying his own cleverness while he does it. The material is a range showcase: the pleasure for the audience is watching one actor become seven ages in two minutes, so give each age a real and different color. Keep the through-line of the observer who finds all of it a little absurd and a little sad.
Common mistakes
- Playing all seven ages in the same wry register instead of finding a separate life for each.
- Getting mournful too early and flattening the comedy of the first few ages.
- Rushing the final line for a laugh; the repeated "sans" needs space to land.
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