'Seven Ages of Man - All the World's a Stage' by William Shakespeare (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

This speech is from Act II, scene vii of "As You Like It".

These days the inevitability of old age is not quite so certain - as archy the cockroach observed in 1927:

the old fashioned
grandmother who used
to wear steel rimmed
glasses and make
everybody take opodeldoc
has now got a new
set of ox glands and
is dancing the black bottom

The Prophet Of Longevity is Raymond C. Kurzweil who coauthored a book called Fantastic Voyage.

His proposition is that if he can live to year 2030, which will make him 82, immortality will then be a practical proposition.

When I saw him on TV he was running on his treadmill, drinking green tea and telling the interviewer that he takes 250 pills a day. Maybe its possible to live longer by exercising and taking pills by the hatful, but nobody has had any demonstrable success yet.

If he were 100 years old and married to a playboy bunny he would have a better argument. "Methuslah lived nine hundred years; but who calls dat livin when no gall will give in to no man whats nine hundred years. " (Porgy and Bess., 1935, by George Gershwin)

Is a modest increase in longevity worth having, if it costs a fortune and the extra time has to be spent on a treadmill? He is hoping to postpone death using currently known techniques or those he fondly hopes might work. The premise is that the longer one lives then there will then be techniques to postpone death even further. He predicts this will happen by year 2030.

Some of the longevity bunch go for continuity of identity at all costs, even speculating about mechanical replacement of their bodies or uploading themselves into a computer. But would you feel any sensation of transference? Even if you created a perfect clone of yourself, what good does that do you? And what good does it do to have a computer program that thinks it is you? It is only like having a twin. Your body will still die with you in it.

The idea that our identities are continuous in time may be a fallacy anyway, like other false beliefs that make life tolerable. What really appeals to us is that our identities are always developing as we try to better ourselves. Every cell of the body we had as a child has been replaced so the continuity is an illusion.

People can have dramatic changes in identity during their lives as the result of physical or psychological trauma; their former self is effectively dead and it doesnt trouble them a bit. It is obvious that not being here didnt bother us before we were born and it wont bother us after are dead. Of course we're afraid of the process of dying - but being afraid of death itself makes no sense because we cannot experience it. We can only experience life.

Thats the logical viewpoint and it counts for very little. We are creatures motivated by emotion and superstition, not logic. Kurzweil and the longevity bunch allay their fear of death by popping pills in the hope of eternal life. Its a religion.

Living beyond a certain optimum age gets to be less and less fun. An older man has wisdom to impart and that justifies his existence in evolutionary terms. But in the end Nature is much better at making new people than repairing old ones. Thats why making new people is such an enjoyable process.

Theres an old cynical joke that death is natures way of telling you you need to slow down a little.

The picture is a Steel-plate engraving, by H. Bourne
of William Mulready's painting, The Seven Ages of Man (1838)

[DEBRACRANFORD]

This was wonderful writ and wonderful spoke.

[hamiltonpaul]

It isn't just a sense of "discontinuity" between the stages of life, that makes it feel so evanescent. It is that when we are young, we look towards the future; when we are old, we agonize (or console ourselves) with the past - so that we rarely LIVE. I agree with Samuel Johnson, who much admired these lines from 'Measure for Measure':

Thou hast nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both.

[VoxJoxx]

I can't imagine their being anyone who could do a better rendition than this, completely satisfying. ty.

[krishnabhavagnya]

I'm having this poem in my English reader and I'm in class 7 I love the line seeking the bubble reputation even in the canon's mouth...

[AmirASabbagh]

I am not a native English speaker and I think reading these beautiful verses in your mother tongue is definitely a different experience. I often read Rumi in my native language (Farsi) and I think reading the translated version is not nearly as enjoyable. Thank you so much for this beautiful video.

[faathima]

very good to hear
thankyou
wonderful
good poem
for kids
and a wonderful poem

[SpokenVerse]

Oh yes. He was a commercial playright and owned an eighth share of the Globe Theatre where his plays were performed. But most of his plays were first published seven years after he died.

[SpokenVerse]

@fdagato Middle English, but still in use occasionally in front of a noun - e.g. a "Sans Serif" typeface. The dictionary defines is as "An archaic word for without. From Old French sanz, and from Latin sine."

[mytopmanhwa]

dont get me are awesome best reading i ever heard😎

[fdagato]

@SpokenVerse thanks for answer my question. man your are a great reader. congratulations!

[Elcore]

I've taught this to inner city kids in a developing country who only speak English as a second language, and even the slowest of them could grasp the overall concept. So no, a person like you will definitely never make use of this in your life.

[SpokenVerse]

@amdsoccer94 But just think, in 40 years' time you will recite it to your grandchildren. And they'll say, "Are you drunk again, Gramps?"

[SpokenVerse]

"without" or "minus"

[SpokenVerse]

@MegaMegaTim Yes you can. My channel page tells you how to extract an mp3, if that would help. All I ask is that you mention me, Tom O'Bedlam as the reader and my channel on YouTube, SpokenVerse. I like to encourage other students to listen to poetry.

[TheZoidsCollector]

I'm using this in my Shakespeare project, thanks for posting! (Got your name and stuff from an above comment).

[conversation]

Thank you kindly for the info on sans, I was just about to search for it. Its lovely to see someone actually being helpful rather than talk shit.

[saromongol]

:-) thanks
IT'S A GREAT HELP FOR MY WORKSHOP

[TimEddy]

can i use this reading in my english assignment?:)

[fdagato]

@SpokenVerse in the poem his use the word sans, is this old english or he is using the french word?

[SpokenVerse]

@sgkilla89 Not effectively. You can't write good English and your manners are bad. So there's a couple of suggestions of how you could use your brain to make your life a lot better.