Delia XLIX

By Samuel Daniel 1562–1619 Samuel Daniel

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,

Brother to Death, in silent darkness born.

Relieve my languish and restore the light;

With dark forgetting of my cares, return.

And let the day be time enough to mourn

The shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth;

Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn

Without the torment of the night’s untruth.

Cease, dreams, th’ imagery of our day desires,

To model forth the passions of the morrow;

Never let rising sun approve you liars,

To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow.

Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain,

And never wake to feel the day’s disdain.

Biography

Though admired as a lyric poet and historian, Samuel Daniel has found few enthusiastic readers for his dramatic works. Sober minded, restrained, reflective, and frequently prosaic, Daniel stands outside the popular-stage tradition, yet as an innovator he is of considerable importance in the history of Renaissance drama. Cleopatra is one of the earliest and best attempts to transplant French Senecan closet drama to the English . . .

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