（“曲终”第二弹）《皆大欢喜》之“世界是个舞台”：环球剧院的诞生与陨灭
昨儿在群里跟读友们讨论到“世界是个舞台”的话题，有感而发：
《皆大欢喜》中“世界是个舞台”是千古流芳的独白，其知名度甚至大于《皆大欢喜》本身。这段独白由玩世不恭的口气说出，道出人生如梦，不过几场戏，肯定是逗笑了观众，又在观众思考后夺取了眼泪。《皆大欢喜》写于1599年，同年，莎士比亚伟大的新剧院 The Globe (环球剧院) 建成。有研究表明，《皆大欢喜》正是在新剧院里演的第一出剧。“世界是个舞台”有了新生的含义，标志着莎士比亚的事业迎来另一个新的篇章，另一个顶峰。
好景不常在，盛年不重来。环球剧院于1613年被烧毁，这对于大股东莎士比亚来说，无疑是另一个丧子之痛。不管人生是不是不过几场戏，不管莎士比亚有多么看透这样大的波折，两年后，他开始意识到自己命数将尽，写下遗嘱，再过一年，他自己也驾鹤西去。
在1610-1612写成的封笔之作《暴风雨》中，Prospero在第四幕的婚礼提到，环球剧院 (the great globe itself) 也会消失.....。如果第四幕写于1613以前，那么Prospero的预言不幸在不久后就变为事实。有学者说，环球剧院烧毁时间为1613年，《暴风雨》（写Globe会消失的地方）为1613年添加，那么预言就变成了挽歌。
一个大厦轰然倒塌，一个事业总会做到尽头，道理是这样，但这并不能抑制悲哀。
日本诗人小林一茶，孩子夭折后，写了一首俳句，在这里很应景：
我知这世界，本如露水般短暂，
然而，然而
DUKE SENIOR
Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theatre 137
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.
JAQUES
All the world's a stage, 139
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 reputationEven 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. 160 （II. vii）
附上三个editors对这段话的注释：
DOVER WILSON 132-133 (环球剧院/玩世不恭/"人生七个阶段"是当时的常见说法，)
137. This wide and universal theatre These words and the famous speech that follows suggest, says Fleay {Life, p. 209), 'a date subsequent to the building of the Globe, with its motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem".' The building was completed in the summer of 1599. 139-66. All the world's a stage etc. It is well to remember that this brilliant passage—one of the best known in all literature—is a piece of sheer cynicism, thoroughly in keeping with the speaker's character, but certainly not to be taken as Shakespeare's own sentiment, as it too often is. The idea of the seven ages was a commonplace of the period.
JULIET 227 （“世界是个舞台”的隐喻出处/独白在结构上的功能）
140-67 All . . . everything This great speech, based on both classical and medieval sources, acts as a focal point in both the play's self-consciousness about dramatic performance and its implicit defence of the theatre against detractors. Lodge had penned the earliest defence (c. 1580) against the attacks of Stephen Gosson (1579), and in Margarite (1596) he compares life to a play and discusses the stages of man's life (Knowles). Jaques 's speech may have given the familiar image new currency. Withals's Dictionary (1599) describes 'A theatre, Theatrum . . .This lyfe is a certaine enterlude or playe, the world is a stage ful of change euery way, Euery man is a player, and therein a dealer' (sig. I5r, also cited in Douce, Illustrations, 1.299). Harington may allude to AYL in a letter to Cecil in 1605: 'that the world is a stage and we that live in it are all stage players . . . I playd my chyldes part happily, the scholler and students part to neglygently, the sowldyer and cowrtyer faythfully, the husband lovingly, the countryman not basely nor corruptly' {Letters, 31, cited in Gurr, Play going, 98). Jaques's highlighting of life as a 'role' prepares the ground for the masquerade of courtship between Orlando and Rosalind in 3.2.
Michael 63 (也许《皆大欢喜》是环球剧院第一部剧)
As You Like It could well have been the first play performed at the company's new playhouse, the Globe,9 which had probably opened between June and September 1599.10 Indeed, it is tempting to conjecture that Jaques' speech about the theatricality of life was a gesture towards the motto of the new playhouse, Totus mundus agit histrionem - 'All the world plays the actor.'11 However, no firm inference concerning an exact date of first performance between June 1599 and August 1600 can be drawn from any of these facts and conjectures.