(circa. 21 Julie 2024)
BACKGROUND
This is a very well known quote from Shakespeare, and almost everyone will recognize it:
All the world’s a stage,
and all the men and women merely players.
Believe me or not, but even Madonna used it in one of her Songs as well, which I'll refer to later. There is however not a lot of People who knows the rest of the quote though:
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 lin’d,
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 sav’d, 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.
This was actually a Monologue to the opening of "As you like it" (Act II, Scene VII)
There are many Blogs and Websites that discuss this piece that William Shakespeare (W.S.) wrote in 1599, each with their own Analysis, Assumptions and Explanations. Ordinary People, "Shakespeareans", Teachers, Academics, Philosophers and People with strings of PhD's have all given their views and arguments, but what INTRIGUED ME the most about this Monologue was the MAN that wrote it! There are Blogs about that too, but I want to bring 1599 to 2024.
The FIRST thing I found out about this Monologue was that the Play "As you like it", was a Comedy. The SECOND thing I found out was that this was not the only time that W.S. wrote about "The Ages of Man" either. I found a lot of "other" things as well that are either directly or indirectly related to this Monologue, but the one worth mentioning is that this Monologue inspired Robert Smirke to Paint a Series of Paintings derived from this piece, between 1798 and 1801 - almost 200 Years AFTER Shakespeare wrote it! Though I'm not a Scientist or an Anthropologist, I knew that according to EVOLUTION, Humans went through Seven Stages to evolve to where we are today:
- Dryopithecus,
- Ramapithecus,
- Australopithecus,
- Homo Habilis,
- Homo Erectus,
- Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, and finally
- Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Google this one)
The last one being the one that I write most about, especially when there can be a Relationship between Homo Sapiens Sapiens and an abstract, random Subject that one would generally not include Humans in. To explain Homo Sapiens Sapiens will take pages, but luckily Wikipedia has done that already. It basically comes down to Homo Sapiens Sapiens viewing all member of the genus Homo as "Archaic Humans" and ourselves as "Modern Humans". If you read Wikipedia, you will actually see how many factors define Modern Humans, which makes each one of us UNIQUE! Even if you have an Identical Twin, something like "Religion" will make you different than your twin, making you Unique.
In this Monologue, W.S however focusses on the different Stages a Person goes through during his (in those time men only) lifetime and not evolution:
- The Infant;
- Schoolboy;
- Lover;
- Soldier;
- Justice;
- Old age; then
- Second Childness.
All of these are still applicable today and I bet W.S. didn't know much about evolution of our Species when he wrote this, nor could he have imagined that Humans would be debating this 400 Years later! He used what he knew about different types of People and the World around him, what he was familiar and comfortable with and made it part of a Comedy to an audience, in 1599.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
I use an expression very often in my life, loosely translated from Afrikaans, "A Person is only a Person because of other People". There's nothing major about this expression, definitely won't be used 400 years from now either, but I would like you to really think about it before moving on. Just ask yourself:
I've grown up with my siblings in the SAME House, SAME Parents, SAME School maybe the SAME Church, but why are we so DIFFERENT?
- Why are you friends with certain People and not others who are not that much different?
- What type of Person am I?
- In what stage of life am I? etc.
- How do you meet and get to know another Person?
The last question leads to three more questions. It was in a Literature class where the Teacher explained the "Techniques" used to identify what type of Person a Character in a Book is. Three simple things:
- What he or she tells other People about themselves;
- What other People says about him or her; and
- How the Person (Character) interacts with "Strangers".
Easy! NOT! The reason why it's difficult is because People LIE! I saw a documentary once where they tried to determine from which age People start lying, and I was surprised. It's not so much about AGE, but when you become able to REASON, EXPRESS your needs and wants INTELLECTUALLY to other People, you start lying.
For example: Take a Child who "lost" a toy, by actually leaving it in a place it wasn't suppose to be and the Parent took it and hided it somewhere. When the Child realizes the toy is missing , they will look and when the Parent asks what they are looking for, the first lie "Nothing" would come out. This will escalate up to a point, after even the Parent lied about where the toy is, where the Parent will reveal the Toy with a warning (thinking they are teaching the child a lesson) about letting toys lie around. The Point I'm trying to make is that Children LEARN to lie and their biggest "Knowledge Base" are ADULTS.
So if you can lie to a Child, what prevents you from lying to another Adult? What prevents you from lying to yourself or lying ABOUT another Person? When you meet Someone for the first time, what are the chances that the Person will be Completely Honest? If that Person is someone you are interested in, then you would like to get to know that person. To really get to know that Person, you will have to rely on the three factors mentioned above and COMMON SENSE! If two of the three things contradict each other, WARNING! On the other hand you have to also answer the first three questions - Honestly.
When you reach the Stage of your life where you have to face the World all by yourself, the people in your life at that point might represent Figure A below:
It's YOU and the People you know up to that point. Generally it will be your Parents, Siblings a few Friends who have other Friends too, but they're only Acquaintances to you. You don't really question the Relationships, because Instinctively you've applied the Three Principles of getting to know someone, without knowing it. That also counts for Siblings and Parents even though you didn't really have a choice. Humans are Social beings and over time the Framework in Figure A might expand - FIGURE B
You start meeting new people, making friend and meeting SOMEONE
SPECIAL. In the beginning you want to get to know that Special Person,
but you hold back certain aspects of yourself and so does the other
person. One of the Three "Getting to know you" factors is missing,
because People don't tell other People everything about them, it takes
Time and Trust. Luckily there are Two other "Tools" you can use in
the Mean time: LISTEN to what the Person's Friends are telling you about
the Special Person and Pay Attention to how your Special Person treats
"Strangers". These "Strangers" are your Parents, Siblings, Friends etc.
You might know them well, the other Person doesn't AND REMEMBER that the
Someone Special is going to do the same. As life goes on, we make new
friends, loose some old friends, acquaintances might become friends or
even Lovers and this Framework evolves to what MIGHT be represented in
Figure C:
Figure C
It's an interesting exercise to do: Write down the names (and their relationship with you) on a piece of paper and organize them around "YOU". You can use String to connect the Names to each other and maybe you'll get a Surprise when you have a "Red String Scenario" (see Figure C) and realize that someone who was Friends with one of your Friends is now actually your Friend, but you're not Friends with the Person you both were Friends with at the beginning. When you're done organizing, go back to the Three "Getting to know you" questions and answer them Honestly for each Person. How well DO you know each Person and then "DO I REALLY NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT A PERSON"?
Grab you Computer and open Youtube. Even though it's a "Break Up Song", you can apply the lyrics to every type of relationship: "I Know Him So Well". Forget about the fact that it's (possibly) a Love Song and LISTEN to the Song.
🠋
🠋
🠋
🠋
🠋
Did you LISTEN?
Click HERE to Continue
No comments:
Post a Comment