The Weird Sisters have told Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and, later, that he will become king as well. Banquo, curious, then asks for some news for himself, and the witches tell him that he will be "Lesser than Macbeth and greater" because he is going to father a line of kings, but not be king himself (1.3.66). Because he will never be a king, he is going to be "less" than Macbeth, but because his descendants will be kings and Macbeth's won't be, he is greater than his friend. Further, the witches tell Banquo he will be "Not so happy, yet much happier" for the same reasons: he will not be so happy as to be king like Macbeth, but he will be happier in that his children will run the country (1.3.67). They finally reveal how all these paradoxes can be true when they say to him, "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none" (1.3.68). In other words, he will never rule, but his descendants will.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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