In the final scene of the Matese Falcon Dashiel Hammett's moody Sam Spade refers to a statue that was mistakenly thought to be of great value as "The stuff that dreams are made of.''
Hammett may have been inspired by lines from The Tempest (Act IV, scene 1) where Shakespeare has Prospero say:
Our revels now are ended: these our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yes, and all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a wrack behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Incidentally, the web now has so many Shakespeare sites that meta-sites have evolved to serve them. My favorite among the multitude is Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet. It is a glorious resouce.
Dashiel Hammett was less lucky than Shakespeare, but still lucky --- though he melted like the rest.