We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and…

Prospero speaks these words in Act IV, scene 1 of The Tempest. For the betrothal of his daughter Miranda to Ferdinand, he has had his spirits perform a masque; then he suddenly remembers “that foul conspiracy” of Caliban and his confederates against his life. Seeing Ferdinand dismayed, he reassures him: “Our revels now are ended.” The actors were all spirits, melted “into thin air”; like this “insubstantial pageant”, “the great globe itself” shall dissolve and “Leave not a rack behind”. The lines follow, and Prospero, vexed, sends the lovers to his cell while he walks “To still my beating mind”.

The Tempest, performed at court in November 1611, is among Shakespeare’s last plays and stands first in the Folio of 1623. Prospero’s farewell to his magic has long been read as Shakespeare’s own.

The line is usually misquoted as “such stuff as dreams are made of”; “made on” is what Shakespeare wrote. Humphrey Bogart’s closing line in The Maltese Falcon, “the stuff that dreams are made of”, fixed the variant.

The Tempest, Act IV, scene 1 (Prospero), 1611

Checked word for word in the work itself.

Read the passage in the work