Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

John Fletcher (1579–1625)

Invocation to Sleep (from Valentinian)

CARE-CHARMING Sleep, thou easer of all woes,

Brother to Death, sweetly thyself dispose

On this afflicted prince; fall like a cloud

In gentle showers; give nothing that is loud

Or painful to his slumbers;—easy, sweet,

And as a purling stream, thou son of night,

Pass by his troubled senses; sing his pain

Like hollow murmuring wind or silver rain;

Into this prince gently, oh, gently slide,

And kiss him into slumbers like a bride!