But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.
– William Shakespeare
Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. A troubled Macbeth is so racked with guilt after killing Duncan that he envies the dead King. He observes that the dead can sleep in peace, while his own sleep is disrupted by terrible nightmares. Macbeth foreshadows his own death by saying that it is better to be dead.