Jaqueys' All the World's a Stage Soliloquay
The Famous Speech in As You Like It and the Elizabethan Stage
Jaques’ speech in Act 2, Scene 7 of As You Like It begins with some of Shakespeare’s most famous words: “All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.” In the monologue that follows, Jaques examines the human lifespan as a dramatic construct, using the language of the theater to characterize the various stages of emotional and physical development. Jaques’ discussion highlights one of the major thematic elements in As You Like It: the concept of performance as personality. The description of life as a seven-act play that he provides in his famous speech effectively summarizes one of the ideas that guide Shakespeare’s celebrated comedy.
One Man in His Time Plays Many Parts
The basic thesis of Jaques’ speech is that every life is a theatrical performance. He divides the life of a man into seven ages, or acts, and describes each with a stock character. The first two ages—the infant and the schoolboy—have little presence on the Elizabethan stage due to the difficulty of training child actors.
The next age that Jaques describes, however, is the lover, an archetypal character who appears throughout Shakespeare’s works. Within As You Like It, Shakespeare introduces two lovers who fit the role Jaques explains, “Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad, / Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.” The awful poetry that Orlando writes in Rosalind’s honor is a great example of the “woeful ballad” Jaques suggests, and Silvius’ wails are exactly the kind of sighs that Jaques describes.
Shakespeare challenges and ultimately reforms both of these lovers by the end of the play through Rosalind, whose power to direct the play’s events stems from a clear understanding of the dramatic tradition. The next act, the soldier, is a character with whom Shakespeare is not entirely unfamiliar—the man Jaques describes could be a martial character like Tybalt or Macbeth. The fifth act, the judge, is a familiar figure in the Elizabethan world—a local noble or magistrate—who also found his way onto the stage. The sixth, the pantaloon, takes its name from a character in Italian drama, and the seventh, the last scene of all, is reminiscent of King Lear’s descent into oblivion.
Theatrical Images in As You Like It
Understanding life as a “strange eventful history” with clear parallels to the stage is a common strategy throughout As You Like It. Performance and illusion are major elements of the plot. Even the title suggests that, in this comedy, Shakespeare is engaging theater as a contemporary art form. Within the play, he challenges theatrical conventions such as deus ex machina by including a god, Hymen, in the final act.
His primary character, Rosalind, also enters into conversation with the theatrical world. In order to prove Orlando’s worth as a potential lover, she sends him through an elaborate courtship ritual in which she dons a costume and a new identity. Orlando is required to suspend his disbelief and participate in the performance in order to earn Rosalind’s affection.
Jaques as Theatrical Figure
Jaques himself is also a theatrical character. As a courtier in the service of Duke Senior, he is well acquainted with the artifice of courtly life. He often expresses admiration for artists and entertainers, claiming after he meets the fool Touchstone that “motley’s the only wear.”
Jaques also engages other characters, specifically Orlando, in verbal duels, imitating Touchstone’s performances. As “Monsieur Melancholy,” Jaques cannot share the classic happy ending at the conclusion of the play. Instead, as an outside observer, he tells the Duke that he will wait for the celebration to end in an abandoned cave. Even in this capacity, Jaques fills the role of the comic scapegoat and further participates in As You Like It’s careful commentary on the Elizabethan stage.
Jaques lives in a theatrical world.
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