My Personal Checklist
From “The Seven Ages of Man” by William Shakespeare:
✔ 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…
☐ 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…
——
Four down; three left to go.
