answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: from William Shakespeare 's As You Like It
questions: where does the seven ages of man come from
name: All the world's a stage
contexts: `` 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 .