, 1870-04-03
DEATHS KINSMAN,


Very frequently we come upon phrases, the
honor Of invcnting which haa been assigned 10
later men; aa in this lins,nauship Of Sleep
and Death:
Care-cha1ncr, Sleep, son ot the sable night,
Bvuther to ptlth, In client darkness botnf
Of which relationship Daniel himself, from
whom the lines aro taken, was probably moi
tho first discovere1.
1t is remarkable that tho very same phrase
is to he found in tho play Of '@valentinian,
By Beaumont aud F1ethe1, who were contem
rozasies Of Daniel but "a tie exact date oi
it il Impossible to say whether priority in III.
use Of the phrase is due to them or to Samuel
Daniel. This Is what Beaumont and Flstehei
said Of eleep:
ca1e-charmer Sleep, thou easer Of al woes
Brother to DEATH swtcty thysc1f dispose
On this affltcsed Prince.
This is curious literary parallel, If it r1ay
not be called plagiarism. Samuel Daniel j
mos, famous contemporary, Shakespeare, has
..sss6o stla same idca, though not Expressed in
quite the earno language. In 'sMacbe1b" We
have doRth called ''the death of zach day's
lie, deaths counterfeit" and, in Ham
lot" we have
70 d1a-so sleep
To sleep! rerrhancc to dream -ay thete the rub
For, IN thar sleep ot death, what dreams may come.
30 thnt at least three contemporary poets and
dfamatists had made rse OF the idea suggested
By the likeness Of sleep to death Since their
time the idea hns been frequently rcpeated.
Shelley, IN his AQueen Mab,' adopts the very
phrase, implying the close relationship Of tho
Two.
How wonderful Il Death
Death and his brother Sleept
Butler, in his "Hudibras,' has tho following
couplct:
When Sleep the wear1etl world relieved,
BY countefeluug Death revived.
Dryden. in his "Don Sebastian" SAW,
Death to a man IN misery il eleep," and, IN
smother Of his phys, he sAys:-
For, thou shalt sleep and never wake again,
bnt Is so9 IT, rnas s ~ aE vss
" hich, IN forRetful death, thou !eas st behind
No time shan dry our tears, nor drive thee rzum
The worst that can 4bcfall thee, neasu.eti right,
Is 1 sound slumber anu long good night
And AGAIN.
Nay, eyn IN sleep, the body. w!art in ease,
We're that souna sleep eternal, Il wers Death.
Where now Is Homer who possessed the throne.
The Immortal work remains, tho mortal authors
And shou-dost thon dtsdain to yield thy breath,
Whose very life Is little more than Death?
AoIc than one-nalf ny LAZY Sleep possessed,
91AA3 "AEA A"AAtY kuS 8Qu1 Dut QO43 H DH1[,
Dsy-AreaIas and slckly thoughts revolving In thy
blcast
Dennis has tho following conccit:
Nature. alas, Why art thou SO
Obliged unto thJ greatest foe.
Sleep, that Is thy best repast,
Yet Of Death It bearA 1 taste,
Ana both are the s2tnc lhingB at lakt
Cowley comes nearer to the mention Of close
relationship between death and sleep in tho
following eourlet from an ode to tho "drowsy
Let her but grant, and then WIFI
fhee and thy kinsman Death defy.
Coler1dEe, in his 'Monody on Chatterton,"
has these lines:
Oh; what wonder seems the fear of Death,
seeing how gladly We all sink to sleer,
BABES, childre1, }ouths 2nd men,
Night fulluwug night Tor lnretscore years and ten.
Good Bishop hen's Evening Hymn recu5s
to the memory:
Teach me to live that may dread
The grave a. little - nv bed,
and Thomas Narton'e elegant Latin enirrsm.
written for the pedestal Of statue OF Somnus
placed in the garden Of his friend Harris, the
philologist
Scmne levis, Quenqnan certisstma mo1tts lunRo.
Consoftsm cupid te tanner esse tori:
Anna qucs, optata, vent, nam sic sine vita
NNere guam suast est; sic aims molte nor.
Wolcot's translation Of this epiGram pre-
serses its beauty in remarkable degree:
Come, gentle Sleep: attend fhy yo{rv's prnycr.
anu ttrnugh Deaths Image, 10 my couch repair
How sweet, though lifelcas, yet win life to lie,
And, without DYING, oh! how sweet u die.
And how pathetically did Hood reproduce
the idea:
o1zvcrE hopcs belel our fears,
g.! fears nnr hopes hel.eh;
VIZ Fought her dying while Rhe eler,
Ali sleeping when abe died.
IAeFe various Passages Will interest those Of
our Ieadets Who arc fond Of noting literary