* The natural gates and alleys of the body; † First folio, bak'd. First folio, and. WARBURTON. 9 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, &c.] The very words of this part of the speech are taken (as I have been informed by a gentleman of undoubted veracity) from an old Legend of Saints, where a man, who was accidentally drowned, is introduced as making the same complaint. Steevens. 1 Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneld ;] Unhousel'd is 'without having received the sacrament.' Disappointed, as Dr. Johnson observes, " is the same as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared. A man well furnished with things necessary for an enterprise, was said to be well appointed." This explanation of disappointed may be countenanced by a quotation of Mr. Upton's from Measure for Measure : “Therefore your best appointment make with speed." Isabella, as Mr. Malone remarks, is the speaker, and her brother, who was condemned to die, the person addressed. Unaneld is “ without extreme unction.' I shall now subjoin as many notes as are necessary for the support of the first and third of these explanations. I administer the bark only, not supposing any reader will be found who is desirous to swallow the whole tree. In the Textus Roffensis, we meet with two of these words“The monks offering themselves to perform all priestly functions of houseling, and aveyling." Aveyling is misprinted for aneyling. Steevens. See Mort d'Arthur, p. iii. c. 175: “So when he was houseled and aneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have," &c. TYRWHITT. No reckoning made, but sent to my account The subsequent extract from a very scarce and curious copy of Fabian's Chronicle, printed by Pynson, 1516, seems to remove every possibility of doubt concerning the true signification of the words unhousel'd and unaneld. The historian, speaking of Pope Innocent's having laid the whole kingdom of England under an interdict, has these words : “ Of the manner of this interdiccion of this lande have I seen dyverse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that the lande was interdyted thorwly and the churchis and housys of relygyon closyd, that no where was used mase, nor dyvyne servyce, by whiche reason none of the VII sacramentis all this terme should be mynystred or occupyed, nor chyld crystened, nor man confessed nor marryed; but it was not so strayght. For there were dyverse placys in Englond, which were occupyed with dyvyne servyce all that season by lycence purchased than or before, also chyldren were chrystenyd throughe all the lande and men houselyd and anelyd." Fol. 14, Septima Pars Johannis. The Anglo-Saxon noun-substantives husel (the eucharist), and ele (oil), are plainly the roots of these last-quoted compound adjectives.- For the meaning of the affix an to the last, I quote Spelman's Gloss. in loco : "Quin et dictionibus (an) adjungitur, siquidem vel majoris notationis gratia, vel ad singulare aliquid, vel unicum demonstrandum.” Hence anelyd should seem to signify oiled or anointed by way of eminence, i. e. having received extreme unction. For the confirmation of the sense given here, there is the strongest internal evidence in the passage. The historian is speaking of the VII sacraments, and he expressly names five of them, viz. baptism, marriage, auricular confession, the eucharist, and extreme unction. The antiquary is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynson, 1516, hecause there are others, and I remember to have seen one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a continuation to the end of Queen Mary, London, 1559, in which the language is much modernized. Brand. 20, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible !) It was ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be supposed to interrupt so long a speech. Johnson. A couch for luxury and damned incest. else ? And shall I couple hell?–O fye-Hold, hold, my heart; * First folio, Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. 3 - a couch for LUXURY -] i. e. for lewdness. So, in K. Lear: “ To't luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers.” Steevens. See Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. II. Malone. 4 — pale his uneffectual fire ;] i. e. shining without heat. WAR BURTON. To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: “ Death can pale as well “ A cheek of roses, as a cheek less bright.” Again, in Urry's Chaucer, p. 368 : “ The sterre paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the sonne," &c. Uneffectual fire, I believe, rather means, fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 : like a glow-worm, STBEVENS. 5 Adieu, adieu, adieu ! &c.] The folio reads “ Adieu, adieu, Hamlet, remember me.” Steevens. 6-O fye !) These words (which hurt the measure, and from that circumstance, and their almost ludicrous turn, may be suspected as an interpolation,) are found only in the two earliest quartos. “O fye!" however, might have been the marginal reprehension of some scrupulous reader, to whom the MS. had been communicated before it found its way to the press. Steevens. This line in Mr. Malone's first folio is thus : 66 8 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, + First folio, yes, yes. heart." The ludicrous words, as Mr. Steevens chooses to term them, are found in a subsequent speech of Hamlet, Act II. Sc. II. near the close : “ Fye upon't! foh! about my brains." So also, p. 202: “ Fye on't! oh fye! 'tis an unweeded garden." Boswell. Remember thee? “ Which shall above that idle rank remain, - this distracted globe," i. e. in this head confused with thought. Steevens. 8 Yea, from the TABLE OF MY MEMORY —] This expression is used by Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesie. So, in Golding's Translation of Abraham's Sacrifice, by Beza : “ Let not this trew and noble storie part - from the table of my memory I'll wipe away, &c.” This phrase will remind the reader of Chæria's exclamation in the Eunuch of Terence ;—“O faciem pulchram! deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres." STEEVENS. 9 My TABLES,-meet it is, I set it down,] This is a ridicule on the practice of the time. Hall says, in his character of the 7 That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; At least, I am sure, it may be so in Denmark: [Writing. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word '; It is, Adieu, adieu! remember me. Hypocrite, “ He will ever sit where he may be seene best, and in the midst of the sermon pulles out his tables in haste, as if he feared to loose that note,” &c. Farmer. No ridicule on the practice of the time could with propriety be introduced on this occasion. Hamlet avails himself of the same caution observed by the Doctor in the fifth Act of Macbeth : “I will set down whatever comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.” Dr. Farmer's remark, however, as to the frequent use of table-books, may be supported by many instances. So, in the Induction to The Malcontent, 1604: “ I tell you I am one that hath seen this play often, and give them intelligence for their action : I have most of the jests of it here in my table-book.” Again, in Love's Sacrifice, 1633 : “ You are one loves courtship : “ To stuff your table-books.” Again, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602 : Balurdo draws out his writing-tables and writes “ Retort and obtuse, good words, very good words." Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609 : “Let your tables befriend your memory; write,” &c. STEEVENS. See also The Second Part of Henry IV.: “And therefore will he wipe his tables clean, “ And keep no tell-tale to his memory," York is here speaking of the King. Table-books in the time of our author appear to have been used by all ranks of people. In the church they were filled with short notes of the sermon, and at the theatre with the sparkling sentences of the play. Malone. I am in possession of three of these table-books : one printed in 1604, the date of the first edition of Hamlet : “ Writing Tables, with a Kalendar for xxiiii. Yeares, &c. The Tables made by Robert Triplet. London. Imprinted for the Companie of Stationers, 1604.” Boswell. Now to my word;] Hamlet alludes to the watch-word given every day in military service, which at this time he says is, Adieu, adieu! remember me. So, in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607 : "Now to my watch-word." STEEVENS. |