...we are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep That is one of my favorite quotes - spoken by Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest . The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Maybe that is why, when I am donig a show and it closes, I go to center stage, when everyone is gone, and do that speech. As a poet I rather apply "on" than the former, I just found your site when scanning for my current book, “Stuff As Dreams.” I don’t think you are making too much of it. Whether a car, airplane, train or ship, the vehicles in our dream can reflect what direction … Why? At the end of the 1941 John Huston film The Maltese Falcon, based on the Dashiell Hammett novel, Sergeant Tom Polhaus asks Sam Spade about the heavy, black statuette of a falcon that was the cause of all the mystery and murder. But perhaps he should have kept a copy of the play closer to hand because he says "the stuff that dreams are made of" (whereas Shakespeare actually uses "on" as the final word.) BTW, "made on" could be defined in various ways: 'on' can mean 'against' or 'upon' or 'on top of' or 'because of' or 'from'. Shakespeare the Philosopher, making grand and beautiful observational statements that only lead to asking ultimate Questions. I first heard the expression from the mouth of Humphrey Bogart. If Google is to be believed, the ratio is about 5 to 1 (200k or so misquotes to about a million instances of the actual quote). Dreams follow reality. “Epidemic” vs. “Pandemic” vs. “Endemic”: What Do These Terms Mean? Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. …and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep. The Answer: Probably the most famous modern use of the phrase, responsible for much of its popularity, was in 1941's The Maltese Falcon. All rights reserved. A line from the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare; it continues, “and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” It is spoken by the magician Prospero. We are such stuff / As dreams are made on A line from the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare; it continues, “and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” It is spoken by the magician Prospero. I guess it makes more sense when you have it in context to the play. They don’t exist. Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divination and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. As tends to be the case an awful lot of the time, this dates back to Shakespeare. "Made of" is a far more common phrase than "made on" and so it's easy to let it slip in that way. Love it. It's no wonder that expressions from his works in literature, including the "Such stuff as dreams are made on" quote, are an 'anonymous' part of the English language. What Your Dreams Actually Mean, According to Science. Why would you care about that? What Is Your Choice For The 2020 Word Of The Year? No time to check the blog regularly? Bogart asks why and Greenstreet says that “it’s the thing that dreams are made … Apparitions. Schopenhauer's purpose, in quoting these lines, was to illustrate his point that there is no logical way of refuting strict idealists who believe that the 'outside world' is nothing but an illusion (i.e. Such stuff as dreams are made on What's the origin of the phrase 'Such stuff as dreams are made on'? life is but a dream. (He also used to quote English and Scottish authors in the original.) Because I had an actress who could walk a tightrope while playing the violin. He has just made a large group of spirits vanish and is reminding his daughter and her fiancé that mortal life also ends quickly. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and we'll deliver it right to your inbox! The line also popped up in an episode of Castle, when Castle refers to a fake diamond necklace as "the stuff that dreams are made of." Just happened to find Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory …. Required fields are marked *. They can be entertaining, fun, romantic, disturbing, frightening, and sometimes bizarre. They don’t exist. Is Friday Named After A Goddess With A Chariot Pulled By Cats? I don't think so. In the final scene with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre they have just discovered that the falcon statuette is a fake. It's not always obvious what you're dreams are telling you, but the art (and science) of dream interpretation can set you on the right path.Herein, we've rounded up the expert dream interpretations and dream meanings of common dreams. It's the stuff that dreams are made of It's the slow and steady fire It's the stuff that dreams are made of It's your heart and soul's desire It's the stuff that dreams are made of. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made On book. This is the love that claims your life Though you say your heart can't cry Why can't your broken heart cry? @JMI agree. The source he used must have been an English-language original. So, technically speaking, it could actually mean "of". It's that wish that we can only see in our dreams. From Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1610: Prospero: We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. A Goddess with a Chariot Pulled by Cats continue to use this `` such as... Are used for humans to consolidate its memories for things that happened the day before has it it. A bunch of scholars who would say that one word matters,,... Evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC followed by failure verify... 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