"All the world 's a stage '' is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare 's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man 's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone and old age, facing imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare 's most frequently quoted passages.
the story of seven ages by william shakespeare
As You Like It