WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON OLD AGE AND
LIFE
The English poet, playwright and
actor William Sakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April
1616. He wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets,
and some poems like Venus and Adonis (1593), The Rape of Lucrece (1594), A
Lover’s Complaint and he Phoenix and Turtle. His four most famous plas are Hamlet, Macbet, King Lear and Othello.
On the whole, Shakespeare is as famous today
as he ever before was; and he can be rightly
regarded as : The Universal Poet Of Mankind’.
The
extracts given below are taken from his tragic play Macbeth first performed in 1606.
(A). ON OLD AGE
I have liv’d long enough : my way of
life
Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow
leaf ;
And that which should accompany old
age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of
friends,
I must not look to have ; but, in
teir stead,
Curses, not loud but
deep,mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny,
and dare not.
---Act
5, Sc.3.
------
(B)
REFLECTIONS ON LIFE
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to
day,
To the last syllable of recorded
time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted
fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out,
brief candle
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor
player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more ; it is a
tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,
Signifying nothing.
---Act
5, Sc.4.
G.R.Kanwal
18 October 2026
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