William Shakespeare · As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7. 212 spoken words · approximately 90–150 seconds. Blank verse.
At a glance
- Character: Jaques — Male character.
- Useful for: Teens and adults.
- Rehearsal challenge: Intermediate: an extended image with seven stages.
- Text: The complete uninterrupted speech identified below, extracted from the public-domain source edition. It is one speech within a longer play.
Timing is an estimate, not an audition guarantee. Time your own delivery with pauses and reactions. The character description explains the play; actors of any gender may explore the role in practice, subject to the requirements of a particular production or audition.
What happens immediately before this speech?
Orlando has arrived at the exiled Duke's table seeking food for the elderly Adam. The Duke offers help, and Orlando goes to fetch him. The Duke reflects that the world contains people with worse suffering than their own. Jaques extends the theatrical image into a picture of the seven ages of a man's life.
Speaking to: Duke Senior and the companions gathered at the meal.
What the character wants: Offer a view of human life that changes how the group sees its present troubles.
A change to explore: Recognizable, sometimes comic portraits move toward frailty and loss.
The complete speech
Jaques · As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7
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' 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 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 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.
Source: As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7 in MIT’s Complete Works of Shakespeare. The spoken wording follows that edition; stage directions are omitted. Verse line breaks are retained. Prose is displayed as a paragraph. Other editions may differ in spelling, punctuation or line division.
The thought in plain English
Life resembles a play in which people enter, leave and take different roles. A person passes through infancy, school, love, soldiering, public authority and old age, until the final stage strips away the abilities and possessions that once seemed defining.
This CueRoom paraphrase is a study aid. The rehearsal demo uses Shakespeare’s wording above.
Words and phrases to understand
- mewling
- Whimpering or crying weakly.
- pard
- Leopard.
- justice / saws
- A magistrate / proverbial sayings.
- pantaloon
- A stock comic figure of an elderly man.
- sans
- Without; often spoken like sanz in English performance.
Acting questions
- Are you entertaining the table, correcting it or withdrawing from it?
- Which of the seven ages reminds you of someone you know?
- Where does your amusement change, if it does?
- What response do you want after the final repetition of 'sans'?
A rehearsal experiment
Give every age one concrete image, then tell the speech without caricaturing seven separate voices. On a second run, choose one listener at the table whose reaction matters and let the description land on that person.
Keep the scene playable
This is Jaques's view of life in a particular conversation, not an instruction that every production must endorse its bleak ending. The arrival of Orlando with the elderly Adam immediately afterward is useful context when considering what the speech leaves out.
Rehearse Jaques’s monologue free in CueRoom
The real rehearsal app opens with this exact speech divided into 8 thought beats. Choose Practice my lines to recall each beat, or Listen to the recording to hear the prepared reading. Prompt plays the current beat; bookmarks help you return to a difficult transition.
No account, purchase or replay credits required. The Studio reading is recorded once. Unlimited replays and prompts use those saved files.
Fixed text and voice; changes stay in this tab. Manual advance and timed hands-free practice are available. Voice Control depends on browser support and optional microphone permission. The reading offers one interpretation, not an authoritative pronunciation or performance guide.
How to memorize this speech
Number the seven ages and practice moving between them out of order before making a complete run. Pay particular attention to the transitions: some changes occur inside a verse line rather than neatly at its end.
Try recalling a beat before revealing it, check the exact wording, and then connect it to the following beat. Once the sequence holds, run the whole speech with a listener and intention. Use the monologue preparation plan for a short deadline or the line-learning guide for a longer rehearsal routine.
Choosing it for an audition or class
The sequence is clear for study, but it is longer than many one-minute limits. Avoid assuming that a familiar quotation will fit simply because its opening is short.
Read the surrounding scene and check the audition’s period, duration and edition requirements. Make any permitted cut before learning it. This public demo always uses the complete selected speech shown above.
Related Shakespeare monologues
- Puck: If we shadows have offended — At the end of the play, Puck asks the audience to forgive the evening's mischief and send the actors away as friends.
- Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain'd — In the courtroom, Portia asks Shylock to temper his legal claim against Antonio with mercy.
- Edmund: Thou, nature, art my goddess — Edmund rejects the social rules that favor his legitimate brother and reveals his intention to take Edgar's inheritance.
Compare all 12 Shakespeare speeches → · Explore the whole monologue library →
Text and rehearsal-note credits
Speech by William Shakespeare. MIT states that its HTML Shakespeare texts are placed in the public domain. Selection, context, plain-English explanation and rehearsal exercises on this page are prepared for CueRoom. The Shakespeare text is not an original CueRoom monologue or a modern copyrighted edition.
Compare this male Shakespeare character with contemporary originals in Monologues for Men, with playing-age guidance and contrasting rehearsal pairs.
Bring your own script into rehearsal
The prepared demo stays free. The full CueRoom app lets you import material you have permission to use, choose reader voices and keep your own script library.