heaven (metrically treated as one or as two syll.; not pre-Eliz. in exclamations of surprise, etc.; often put for ‘God’ in old edd. in deference to the Act to restrain Abuses of Players, of 1605-6; sometimes in sing. with pl. concord R2 I. ii. 6, Mac. II. i. 4; also in pl. with sing. concord John III. i. 108, Mac. IV. iii. 230).
1.
“floor of ,” the sky Mer.V. v. i. 58.
2.
used fig. with ref.
to the ancient astronomical division of the realms
of space around the earth into ‘spheres’ or spherical shells lying one outside another
H5 I. Chor. 2
“O! for a Muse of fire,
that would ascend The brightest of
invention.”
