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William Shakespeare on Dreams

1564–1616 England

← All quotes by William Shakespeare

37 quotes

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest (1611)

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep.

Henry V (1599)

He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache.

Cymbeline (1611)

But I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her
And be her sense but as a monument.

Cymbeline (1611)

Thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!

Macbeth (1605)

There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs.

This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd
So many English kings.

This is the rarest dream that e'er dull sleep
Did mock sad fools withal.

I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid.

Macbeth (1605)

He sleeps by day
More than the wild-cat.

Bid them come forth and hear me,
Or at their chamber-door I'll beat the drum
Till it cry sleep to death.

King Lear (1608)

There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night.

Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company.

Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me.

Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep," the innocent sleep.

Macbeth (1605)

For never yet one hour in his bed
Have I enjoyed the golden dew of sleep,
But have been waked by his timorous dreams.

Richard III (1591)

To sleep! perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.