William Shakespeare

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep." - William Shakespeare

From Act IV of The Tempest, this line is spoken by Prospero, as he compares his magical illusions "melted into air, into thin air," to the transient nature of our lives. 

Our illustration, inspired by his enchanted art, features the island as an inverted book whose tendrilled pages entangle with a sinking ship. When Prospero later abjures from magic, he promises that "deeper than did ever plummet sound / I’ll drown my book."  Many scholars contend that this was the last play Shakespeare wrote alone, perhaps his farewell to the Elizabethan audience.

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