Hello Everyone and Welcome to another Video from Beaming Notes. In this video, we take a look at About the Poet, the Poem and Setting of the Poem The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare.
Voice-Over and Narration : Anushree Sen
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ABOUT THE POET:
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William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer in the world of English literature. He was an English poet, a dramatist and an actor. Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon and is often regarded as the ‘Bard of Avon.’ He is considered as the national poet in England. His works consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, some long narrative poems and other verses. There is considerable controversy regarding his physical attributes,
sexuality, religious beliefs etc. Some of his famous dramatic tragedies include Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. Shakespeare died on 23rd of April, 1616 at the age of 52, survived by his wife and two daughters.
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ABOUT THE POEM:
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The poem Seven Stages of Man is an extract taken from one of Shakespear’s famous comedies “As You Like It”. It is a pastoral comedy believed to have been written around 1599 and first published in the First Folio (1623). The speaker of the poem is melancholic Jaques in act 2 scene 7. The poem starts with the famous line “All the world’s a stage” and is regarded as a mouth piece of Shakespeare;s philosophy.
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SETTING OF THE POEM:
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The idea of the comparison between the world and a stage was prevailing notion. The year Shakespeare was born Richard Edwardes’s play Damon and Pythias were written which contains the lines:
“Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage
Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the stage”
The words might have also arrived from Petronius’ quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem (because almost the whole worlds are actors), a phrase widely circulated in then England.
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Critical Analysis of Seven Ages of Man by Shakespeare:
beamingnotes.com/2017/08/28/c...
Stanza-wise Summary of Seven Ages of Man by Shakespeare:
beamingnotes.com/2017/08/28/s...
Summary and Analysis of The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare:
beamingnotes.com/2014/02/21/s...