And to the dead our last sad duties pay.
Dryden, Æn. xi. 322:
Perform the last sad office to the slain.—Wakefield.
[708] Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.:
I thought before you drew your latest breath,
To sooth your passage, and to soften death.
[709] Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis:
Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,
Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.
Dryden's Virg. Æn. iv. 984:
While I in death
Lay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.
And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.: