APAD: Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything
Meaning:
Shakespeare used this expression to describe the condition of the last of the
seven ages of man. The French word `sans', meaning `without', having one
syllable allows the speaker to quickly reel off the list of things he is
without, closing the `All the world's a stage' speech and so emphazing his
lack of life's functions.
Background:
This is the last line from Jaques famous `all the world's a stage' speech in
Shakespeare's As You Like It, 1600:
JAQUES:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. 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 lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, 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.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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Reading the classics saves time which, like a roll of paper towel, gets
dearer each passing day. Initially, Shakespeare and the Bible might take some
effort but once settled, they feel like a pair of shoes: the more one wears
them, the better they fit.
Today's APAD reminds me of poor Shylock the merchant. He might have had a thing
about some rare meat but the Jew, who insisted that he shared every trait of a
Christian, ended up sans lands, sans goods, sans daughter, and sans Yahweh!