Unhousel'd, unappointed,

i. e. no confession of sins 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 dispute 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 sinking the k in the deflection of any verb or compound formed from. knell, and melting it into a vowel. What sense does unaneal'd then bear? Skinner, in his Lexicon of old and obsolete English terms, tells us, that aneal'd is unctus; from the Teutonick prepostion an, and ole, i. e. oil: so that unaneal'd must consequently signify, unanointed, not having the extreme unction. The poet's reading and explication being ascertained, he very finely makes his ghost complain of these four dreadful. hardships that he had been dispatched out of life without receiving the hoste, or sacrament; without being reconcil'd to heaven and absolv'd; without the benefit of extreme unction; or without so much as a confession made of his sins. The having no knell rung, I think, is not a point of equal consequence to any of these; especially, if we consider, 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 sense of unaneal'd, for notified by the bell, must be owned to be very strong. I have not yet by my inquiry satisfied myself. Hanmer's expli

cation of unaneal'd by unprepar'd, because to anneal metals, is to prepare them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is no resemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practice of annealing metals.

Disappointed is the same as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared; a man well furnished with things necessary for any enterprize, was said to be well appointed. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson's explanation of the word disappointed may be countenanced by the advice which Isabella gives to her brother in Measure for Measure:

"Therefore your best appointment make with
speed."

The hope of gaining a worthless alliteration is all that can tempt an editor to prefer unappointed, or unanointed, to disappointed.

STEEVENS..

Unhousel'd,] The following passage from Holinshed will at once furnish an example of the use, and an explanation of the sense, of this expression:-" The cardinall song masse,the king and queene descended, and before the high aulter they wer both houseled, with one host devided between them."

disappointed,] Stowe, in his account of the execution of Sir Charles Davers, observes, that having put off his gown and doublet in a most cheerful manner, rather like a bridegroom, than a prisoner APPOINTED for death, he prayed very devoutly."

unaneal'd;] Sir Thomas Moore:-" the byshop sendeth oyle to the curates, because they should therewith

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therewith annoynt the sicke in the sacrament of anoyling." .”—And again,-"The extreme unccion or aneyling-." HENLEY.

795. O, 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. 798. A couch for luxury-] i. e. for lewdness.

STEEVENS. 805. to pale his uneffectual fire:] i. e. shining without heat. WARBURTON. To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carcw, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613:

"Death can pale as well

"A cheek of roses as a cheek less bright.'

Uneffectual fire, I believe, rather means, fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1659:

-like a glow-worm,

"The which hath fire in darkness, none in

light." STEEVENS. 806. Adieu! adieu! adieu! &c.] The folio reads: Adieu, adieu, Hamlet! remember me.

STEEVENS. 812. this distracted globe-] i. e. in this head confused with thought.

STEEVENS. 813. Yea, from the table of my memory] This expression is used by Sir Philip Sydney in his Defence

of Poesie.

MALONE.

822. My tables,-meet it is, I set it down,] Hamlet avails himself of the same caution observed by the doctor in the fifth act of Macbeth: "I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly." STEEVENS.

825. 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:

STEEVENS.

"Now to my watch-word.” 833. come, bird, come.] This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them. HANMER.

This expression is used in Marston's Dutch Courtesan, and by many others among the old dramatick writers.

It appears from all these passages, that it was the falconer's call, as Hanmer has observed.

STEEVENS. 846. There needs no ghost, &c.] This piece of humour is repeated by our author in Timon, &c. act v. STEEVENS.

SC. 2.

859. by St. Patrick,-] How the poet comes to make Hamlet swear by St. Patrick, I know not. However, at this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland; to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this Saint. But it was, I suppose, only said at random; for he makes Hamlet a student of Wittenburg. WARBURTON.

·~876. true-penny ?] This sword, as well as some of Hamlet's former exclamations, we find in the Malecontent, 1604. STEEVENS.

11881 Swear by my sword.] Every extract from Dr. Farmer's pamphlet must prove as instructive to the reader as the following:

In the Passus Primus of Pierce Plowman,

“David in his daies dubbed knightes,

"And did them swere on her sword to serve truth 4ever."

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To the authority produced from Dr. Farmer, the following may be added from Holinshed, p. 664: "Warwick kissed the cross of king Edward's sword, as it were a vow to his promise.

Again, p. 1038, it is said, that Warwick drew out his sword, which other of the honourable and worshipful that were then present likewise did, whom he commanded, that each one should kiss other's sword, according to an ancient custom amongst men of war in time of great danger; and herewith they made a solemn vow," &c.

Again, in an ancient MS. of which some account is given in a note on the first scene of the first act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, the oath taken by a master of defence when his degree was conferred on him, is preserved and runs as follows: "First, you shall sweare (so help you God and halidome, and by all the christendome which God gave you at the fount-stone, and by the crosse of this sword which doth represent unto