Ham. O, my prophetick foul! my uncle? Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traiterous gifts, (O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power So to feduce!) won to his fhameful lust The will of my most secming-virtuous queen : O, Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! From me, whofe love was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage; and to decline Upon a wretch, whofe natural gifts were poor To thofe of mine! But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a fhape of heaven; And prey on garbage. But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air- And 2-mine orchard.] Orchard for garden. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb." STEEVENS. 3 With juice of curfed hebenon in a viol,] The word here used was more probably defigned by a metathefis, either of the poet or transcriber, for henebon, that is, henbane; of which the most common kind (byofevamus niger) is certainly narcotic, and perhaps, if taken in a confiderable quantity, might prove poisonous. Galen calls it cold in the third degree; by which in this, as well as opium, he feems not to mean an actual coldness, but the power it has of benumbing the faculties. Diofcorides afcribes to it the property of producing madnefs (oox:apos μanáons). Thefe qualities have been confirmed by feveral cafes related in modern obfervations. In Wepfer we have a good account of the various effects of this root upon most of the members of a convent in Germany, who eat of it for fupper by mistake, mixed with fuc cory; And in the porches of mine ears did pour Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome cruft, 4 Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand, 8 No cory-heat in the throat, giddinefs, dimnefs of fight, and delirium. Cicut. Aquatic. c. 18. GREY. So in Drayton's Barons' Wars, p.51: "The pois'ning benbane, and the mandrake drad." Again, the Philofopher's 4th Satire of Mars, by Robert Antɔn, 1616: "The poifon'd Henbane whofe cold juice doth kill.” In Marlowe's Few of Malia, 1633, the word is written in a different manner, 64 the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, STEEVENS. at once difpatch'd:] Difpath'd, for bereft. WARBURTON. 5 Cut off even in the blooms of my fin, &c.] The very words of this part of the fpeech are taken (as I have been informed by a gentleman of undoubted veracity) from an old Legends of Saints, where a man, who was accidentally drowned, is introduced as making the fame complaint. STEEVENS. • Unhousel'd,] Without the facrament being taken. POPE. In other editions, Unborzzled, unanointed, unaneal'd: The ghoft, having recounted the procefs of his murder, proceeds to exaggerate the inhumanity and unnaturalnefs of the fact, from the circumftance in which he was furprifed. But thefe, I find, X 4 ha,e No reckoning made, but fent to my account O, hor. have been ftumbling blocks to our editors; and therefore I must amend and explain thefe are three compound adjectives in their order. Inftead of unbouzzel'd, we must restore, unboufel'd, i, e. with, out the facrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the facrament, boufel. In the next place, unanointed is a fophiftication of the text; the old copies concur in reading, disappointed. I correct, Unboufel'd, unappointed, i. e. no confeffion of fins made, no reconciliation to heaven, no. appointment of penance by the church. Unaneal'd I agree to be the poet's genuine word; but I must take the liberty to difpute Mr. Pope's explication of it, viz. no knell rung. The adjective formed from knell must have been unknell'd, or unknoll'd. There is no rule in orthography for finking the k in the deflection of any verb or compound formed from knell, and melting it into a vowel, What fenfe does unaneal'd then bear? Skinner, in his Lexicon of old and obfolete English terms, tells us, that ancal'd is unctus; from the Teutonic prepofition an, and ole, i. e. oil: fo that unaneal'd muft confequently fignify, unanointed, not having the extreme unction. The poet's reading and explication being afcertained, he very finely makes his ghoft complain of thefe four dreadful hardhips that he had been difpatched out of life without receiving the bofle, or facrament; without being reconcil'd to heaven and abford; without the benefit of extreme unction; or without fo much as a confeffion made of his fins. The having no knell rung, I think, is not a point of equal confequence to any of thefe; efpecially, if we confider, that the Romish church admits the efficacy of praying for the dead. THEOBALD. This is a very difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the fenfe of unaneal'd, for notified by the bell, must be owned to be very frong. I have not yet by my enquiry fatisfied myself. Hanmer explication of unancal'd by unprepar'd, because to anneal metals, is to prepare them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is no refemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practife of annealing metals. Disappointed is the fame as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared; a man well furnished with things neceflary for any enterprize, was faid to be well appointed. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnton's explanation of the word difappointed may be countenanced by the advice which Ifabella gives to her brother in Mcafure for Measure: "Therefore your best appointment make with speed." The hope of gaining a worthlefs alliteration is all that can empt an editor to prefer unaff pinted ox u sanointed to dijappointed. 9 O, horrible! O, horrible! moft horrible! If thou haft nature in thee, bear it not; Let MILTON has the following lines, confifting of three words each, in which this childish practice is conftantly obferved. Unrefpited, unpitied, unreprieved. Par. Loft. B. 2. unmov'd, Unfhaken, unfeduc'd, unterrified. B. 5. Unbumbled, unrepentant, unreform'd. Par. Reg. B. 3. Again, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B. 2. "Uncourted, unrefpected, unobey'd." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen. B. 2. C. 10. 66 Unpeopled, unmanur'd, unprov'd, unprais’d.” In the Textus Roffenfis we meet with two of these words"The monks offering themfelves to perform all priestly functions of houfeling and aveyking." Aveyling, I believe, is mifprinted for aneyling. SEEVENS. See Mort d' Arthur, p. iii. c. 175. "So when he was honfeled and aneled, and had all that a Chriftian man ought to have, &c." TYRWHITT. The fubfequent extract from a very fcarce and curious copy of Fabian's Chronicle, printed by Pynfon, 1516, feems to remove every poffibility of doubt concerning the true fignification of the words unbeufel'd and unaneal'd. The hiflorian, fpeaking of Pope Innocent's having laid the whole kingdom of England under an interdict, has thefe words: "Of the manner of this interdiccion of this lande have I feen dyverfe opynyons, as fome ther be that faye that the lande was interdyted thorwly and the churchis and houfys of relygyon clofyd, that no where was used mafe, nor dyvyne fervyce, by whiche reafon none of the VII facramentis all this terme fhould be mynystred or occupyed, nor chyld cryftened, nor man confeffed not marryed; but it was not fo ftrayght. For there were dyverfe placys in Englond, whiche were occupyed with dyvyne fervyfe all that feafon by lycence purchafed than or before, alfo chyldren were chryfenyd throughe all the lande and men boufelyd and anelyd. Fol 14. Septima Pars Johannis. The Anglo-Saxon noun-fubftantives bafel, (the eucharift) and ele (oil) are plainly the roots of thefe laft-quoted compound adjectives-For the meaning of the athix an to the lait, I quote Spel 9 O, horrible! O, borrible! must borrible!] It was ingenioufly hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line feems to be long to Hamlet, in whofe mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be fuppofed to interrupt fo long a speech. JOHNSON. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be [Exit. Ham. O all you hoft of heaven! O earth! What elfe? Spelman's Gloff. in Loco. "Quin et dictionibus (an) adjungitur, fiquidem vel majoris notationis gratia, vel ad fingulare aliquid, vel unicum demonflrandum." Hence anelyd fhould feem to fignify oiled or anointed by way of eminence, i. e. having received extreme unction. For the confirmation of the fenfe given here there is the ftrongeft internal evidence in the paffage. The historian is fpeaking of the VII. facraments and he exprefsly names five of them, viz, baptism, marriage, auricular confeffion, the eucharist, and extreme unction. The antiquary is defired to confult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynfon, 1516, because there are others, and I remember to have feen 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. P. A couch for luxury-] i, e. for lewdness. See vol. i. 396. STEEVENS. 2 -uneffectual fire.] i. e. fhining without heat. WARBURTON. To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: "Death can pale as well "A cheek of rofes as a cheek lefs bright." Again, in Urry's Chaucer, p. 368: "The fterre paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the fonne, &c." Uneffectual fire, believe, rather means, fire that is no longer feen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: 66 like a glow worm, "The which hath fire in darkness, none in light." STEEVENS. 3 Adicu! adieu! adieu! &c.] The folio reads: Adieu, adieu, Hamlet: remember me. STEEVENS, And |
