Meaning of “We are such stuff as dreams are made…”

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 56 (Wikisource scan page 62). The line belongs to the poem’s final movement, later numbered section 52; the 1855 record remains tied to the unnumbered first edition rather than inheriting later section structure.

Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.

Apology, final paragraph in Jowett’s translation; Socrates closes after the jury has sentenced him to death.

The Madman, “The Grave-Digger”; the line is spoken by the grave-digger to the narrator.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the King James Version, opening the sequence of contrasting times and seasons.

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Jaques; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 42 / Wikisource scan leaf 54. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” opens Jaques’s seven-ages speech after Duke Senior compares human suffering with theatrical pageants. The metaphor remains dramatic character speech about roles and aging, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically.