XIII.—Observations on the Origin of the Division of Man's Life into Stages. By John Winter Jones, Esq. Assistant Keeper of the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum. In a Letter to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary

Abstract

The name of Shakspere appears to be so inseparably connected with the Seven Ages of Man in the minds of most persons, that few have thought of inquiring how much of this charming creation is really his own. Not that the division of human life into periods or stages is so deeply philosophical that the idea might not occur to many of even ordinary capacity, but the form in which our great poet has presented to us man's course from the cradle to the grave is so beautiful and graphic, so completely his own, that it is hardly matter for surprise that the subject should have been allowed to rest almost entirely unexplored. It certainly would have remained untouched by myself, had it not happened that the Museum has acquired an extremely curious wood-engraving of the Seven Ages of Man, executed about the middle of the fifteenth century. Believing this print to be of sufficient interest and importance to be communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, I have been led to make some inquiries into the subject of it. My researches have carried me further back than I had anticipated.