Surely you’ve heard the misquote, “We are such stuff as dreams are made of.” It’s actually “on”. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,” says Prospero near the end of The Tempest, “And our little lives are rounded with a sleep.”
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).
I got to thinking, is this just a typo? What makes people think it’s one over the other? Who reads it as “on” and thinks, “No, that’s not right, it should be of?” Does it mean the same thing and this is just a minor nit?
We are such stuff as dreams are made of.
Dreams, like the magical spirits Prospero conjures forth, are just little bits of nothingness. They don’t exist. They are an illusion. If we are the stuff that dreams are made of, then our lives too are little more than illusion that will one day end.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
Dreams follow reality. You dream because you are conscious of what you experience. If we are the stuff that dreams are made on, then we are the source of limitless creative possibility.
Am I reading too much into this?
"Am I reading too much into this?"
I don't think so. Although metaphorically, this passage reeks of the Theatre, this is very deep stuff.
Dreams may *be* reality, for all we know–for all Prospero knows, for all Shakespeare knew.
…and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Shakespeare the Philosopher, making grand and beautiful observational statements that only lead to asking ultimate Questions. Love it.
I have a feeling it's a chronic "misremembering" of the line followed by failure to verify it with the text. "Made of" is a far more common phrase than "made on" and so it's easy to let it slip in that way.
I first heard the expression from the mouth of Humphrey Bogart. A misquoted version of it is found as the last line in The Maltese Falcon. You can hear the line here:
http://bardfilm.blogspot.com/2011/01/most-famous-or-infamous-misquotation-of.html
Thanks!
kj
BTW, "made on" could be defined in various ways:
'on' can mean 'against' or 'upon' or 'on top of' or 'because of' or 'from'. So, technically speaking, it could actually mean "of".
–Thought I'd just clear things up 🙂
@JM
I agree. BTW, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer invariably 'misquoted' it, using 'of'. Now Schopenhauer's command of English was excellent — he had lived in England for some time, and was a subscriber to The Times of London to his dying day. (He also used to quote English and Scottish authors in the original.) 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. "… as dreams are made of" …). The source he used must have been an English-language original.
I find this line amazing. 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. The Bard had a wonderful mind. It has always been my favorite speech in his works, followed closely by St. Cripin’s Day.
I do think people often ‘make too much’ of things in his works, however. The Villainy of Iago and Richard III is easily explained, not in psychological terms but the practicality of day to day theater. He had an actor who could chew the scenery to that degree, so he wrote those chomping characters: for that actor and nobody else. I once wrote a scene in which a character must walk a tightrope playing the violin while a hungry lion waits below. Why? Because I had an actress who could walk a tightrope while playing the violin.
The most important thing about Shakespear(e) is that we have not lost his plays and we can still perform them. I still hope for a copy to be found of the Aeschylus “Myrmidons.”
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. “Our Revels now are ended…”
row row row
your boat gently down the stream
merrily merrily merrily
life is but a dream
I have an 1838 edition published in London by John Williamson with Dr Johnson’s preface, and it gives ‘made of’ rather than ‘made on’.
I’m wondering if one or both of the two Variorum editions of Shakespeare in early 19th century give ‘made of’. Can’t get to Library to check but would love to know. My reason is that Thomas Carlyle & his philosopher friend, Sir William Hamilton both use ‘made of’ in quoting The Tempest. Possibly just a common error, but tantalisingly may be more significant.
I don’t think the idea of life as a dream is necessarily unique to Shakespeare or Prospero: The idea of the impermanence of human consciousness is self-evident and Prospero here is downplaying the importance and solidity we give to ourselves and to our “business” and “professions.” He himself is announcing his retirement from his profession, which was the creation of alternate realities. In doing so, he acknowledges that these “realities” were based on tricks, and that what is real is that–like his magic– we are not “real,” i.e. solid entities. The final, convoluted irony is that the play is also just a play. Time to say “Goodnight!”
I interpret the phrase as you suggested ‘dreams from reality’ and the ‘real’ stuff that creativity draws upon. If you read it this way, then you could interpret
the speech as Prospero revelling in the possibilities of the real world, contrasting it with the insubstantial illusion and the dreaming that will come soon enough at the end of life. He may also be reassuring Ferdinand of reality vs dream in this section.