Alma quies, optata, veni, nam sic sine vitâ
Vivere quam suave est; sic sine morte mori."—T. Warton.
[Finely translated by Wolcot.]
"Come, gentle sleep! attend thy vot'ry's pray'r,
And, though Death's image, to my couch repair;
How sweet, though lifeless, yet with life to lie,
And, without dying, oh, how sweet to die!"
"While sleep the weary world reliev'd,
By counterfeiting death revived."—Butler, Hudibras.
"Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,