How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what’s done is done.
– William Shakespeare
Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. This passage from Lady Macbeth contains one of the first recorded uses of the phrase, “what’s done is done.” She is urging her husband to stop dwelling on the death of Duncan and his guards, keeping to himself and making sad thoughts his companions (example of personification). This shows that Macbeth’s conscience is troubling him over the murders.