These lines are from the famous speech of Jaques, the
"resident sourpuss" in the Forest of Arden from Shakespeare's As You Like
It. After hearing another character mention that the world is "a wide and
universal theatre," Jaques uses the already trite metaphor of "all the world's a stage"
to launch his seven ages of man monologue.
In the last
stage of his life, a man loses much of his muscle since his body does not produce
testerone, which is what creates muscle. Therefore, the man's hose/stockings that he
wears from his youth will hang on his now withered legs. Then, because he probably has
lost some teeth, there are small airways made in his mouth. Consequently, when he
speaks, as his tongue moves with the formation of certain words, there may well be a
whistling sound. Clearly, in the last stage, the dying process is accelerating in
Jaques speech about life's fate and fortune.
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