so throw some light
on another subject discussed in this chapter,--the age of the poet.
Such an expression would seem much more natural to a person above,
than to a person below, forty years of age.

[12] See discussion of claim that this Sonnet was addressed to Cupid,
pages 14, 15.

[13] _As You Like It_, Act II., Sc. VII.:

"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.
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 every thing."

[14] Page 28, _supra_.

[15] In Lee's _Life of Shakespeare_, p. 143, appear some statements so
relevant to this discussion that I cannot forbear quoting them:

"Octavius Caesar at thirty-two is described by Mark Antony after
the battle of Actium as the 'boy Caesar' who 'wears the rose of
youth' (_Antony and Cleopatra_, III., ii., 17 _seq._). Spenser in
his _Astrophel_ apostrophizes Sir Philip Sidney on his death near
the close of his thirty-second year as 'oh wretched boy' (l. 133)
and 'luckless boy' (l. 142)."

I was at a public dinner given some years ago, at which General Henry
W. Slocum and Colonel Fred Grant were both speakers. In his remarks,
the General, having stated that his friend the Colonel spoke to him
about being a candidate for an office, continued, "I said to him,
'Wh