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.

When Shakespeare's company called their new theatre The Globe, they probably intended to underline its universal appeal, and they may have used the motto Totus mundus agit histrionem (All the world plays the actor), the Latin text of which is derived from a 12th-century treatise.

In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also had one of his main characters, Antonio, comparing the world to a stage:

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

A stage where every man must play a part,

And mine a sad one.

When Macbeth cries:
Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.
he is summing up everything he has ever done, assessing his life, judging it as futile, and just wanting it to end