All The World's A Stage - Origins

Origins

The comparison of the world to a stage and people to actors long predated Shakespeare. When it was founded in 1599 Shakespeare's own theatre, The Globe may have used the motto Totus mundus agit histrionem (All the world plays the actor), the Latin text of which is derived from a 12th century treatise. Ultimately the words derive from quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem (because almost the whole world are actors) attributed to Petronius, a phrase which had wide circulation in England at the time.

In his own earlier work, The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also had one of his main characters Antonio comparing the world to a stage:- "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one." (The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene I)

Likewise the division of human life into a series of ages was a commonplace of art and literature, which Shakespeare would have expected his audiences to recognize. The number of ages varied: three and four being the most common among ancient writers such as Aristotle. The concept of seven ages derives from medieval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven deadly sins, for theological reasons. The seven ages model dates from the 12th century. King Henry V had a tapestry illustrating the seven ages of man.

According to T. W. Baldwin, Shakespeare's version of the concept that the world is a stage is based primarily upon Palingenius' book Zodiacus Vitae, a school text he would have studied at the Stratford Grammar School, which also enumerates stages of human life. He also takes elements from Ovid and other sources known to him.