"When I am dead, strew me o'er
With maiden flowers."
—Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act iv, sc. 2.
[9.] turning sphear. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy taught that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that all the heavenly bodies revolved about it, being fixed in a complicated framework, or series of hollow crystalline spheres moving one within the other. The "turning sphear" is here this entire system of revolving spheres. See note [34], below.
[10.] harbinger. One who provides a resting-place for a superior person. It was the duty of the king's harbinger, when the court removed from one place to another, to provide lodgings for the king's retinue. Derived from harbor, harborage. The word "harbor" is from A.-S. here, army, and beorg, a refuge. Others derive the word from har, a message, and bringer—hence, one who brings a message, a herald.
Parkes's Topography of Hampstead, 1818, contains the following:
"The office of harbinger still exists in the Royal Household, the nominal duty of the officer being to ride one stage onward before the king on his progress, to provide lodging and provision for the court."
The last knight-harbinger was Sir Henry Rycroft (appointed in 1816, died October, 1846, aged eighty). The office became extinct at his death.
[11.] turtle. Commonly turtle-dove. For history of the word as now applied to the tortoise, see Worcester's Dictionary.
[12.] universall peace. About the time of the birth of Christ there was peace throughout the Roman Empire, and the temple of Janus was shut.
[13.] hooked chariot. The war-chariot armed with scythes, a Celtic invention adopted by the Romans.