Jaques (As You Like It)

Jaques
As You Like It character
Jaques and the Wounded Stag by William Hodges (1790)
Created by	William Shakespeare

Jaques (variously /ˈdʒeɪkwiːz/ and /ˈdʒeɪkz/) is one of the main characters in Shakespeare's As You Like It. "The melancholy Jaques", as he is known, is one of the exiled Duke Senior's noblemen who live with him in the Forest of Arden. Jaques takes no part in the unfolding of the plot, and confines himself to wry comment on the action and exchanges with his fellow characters. He has one of Shakespeare's best-known speeches, "All the world's a stage".