Shirt

(See Nessus.)

Shirt for ensign. When Sultan Saladin died, he commanded that no ceremony should be used but this: A priest was to carry his shirt on a lance, and say: “Saladin, the conqueror of the East, carries nothing with him of all his wealth and greatness, save a shirt for his shroud and ensign.” (Knolles: Turkish History.)

Close sits my shirt, but closer my skin—i.e. My property is dear to me, but dearer my life; my belongings sit close to my heart, but “Ego proximus mihi.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.