762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] Fabyan (1516, rpt. 1811, p. 318): “Anno Domini. MCC.x. . . . x. yere of kinge Iohn[n], . . . .Of the maner of this enterdiccion of this lande haue I seen dyuerse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that lande was enterdyted thorowly, and churchis and housys of relygyon closyd, that no where was vsyd masse nor dyuyne seruyce; by whiche reason, none of the vii sacramentis, i[n] all this terme, shulde be mynystred or occupyed, nor chyld crystenyd, nor man confessyd nor maryed: but it was not so strayght, for there were dyuerse placys in Englande, whiche were occupyed with dyuyne seruyce all that season, by lycence purchacid tha[n] or before; also chyldren were crystened thoroughe all the lande, & men houselyd & anelyd, excepte suche persones as were exceptyd by name in the bull, [[or knowen for maynteyners of the kynges ille entent.]]"

762 Vnhuzled] Fabyan (1516, rpt. 1938, p. 173): “On estar daye one John gardener was taken at saint mary at ax in london, for when he shuld have bene hoselyd he wypyd his mouthe wt a fowle clout & toke blyssyd ost ther in, and so was taken by the parson of churche, & xiiij day of may he was brent in smythfeld. [yr. 1437]”

762 vnanueld]

Ed. note: Though han3 reports Henry VIII’s use of the word with respect to the sacraments, we have not discovered it in Latin or English versions of Henry’s work on the sacraments. We would welcome any information readers can provide.

762 vnanueld] Henley (1787, pp. 42-3) finds the word anoyling in Sir Thomas More [The confutacyon of Tyndales answere made by syr Thomas More knyght . . .[1557, p. 345]: <p. 42> “ ‘The byshop sendeth oyle to the curates, because they should </p. 42> <p. 43> therewith annoynt the sicke in the sacrament of anoyling.’ —And again—‘The extreme unction or aneyling—.’ Henley.” </p.43>

Ed. note: A ref. in mtby2 preceded Henley’s. See also The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, Yale UP, v.8, pt.1, p.15, line 27. More refers often to houseling (“howseled” p. 24, line 31 (24.31); “houseled” 83.11; “they receyue theyr housell” 83. 16), and it is clear from the context that this refers to Holy Communion: “forme of brede is the very holy body of our sauyour Cryste hym selfe . . . ” 83. 12-13. More refers to aneyling in many, many places, but only a couple are listed in the glossary. The very one that Henley refers to is on 15.27 “The extreme vnccyon or anelynge” (according to a chart in Yale UP, p. 15 in Yale corresponds to Bb3v in the 1532 ed. and to p. 345 in the 1557 ed. (The English Works); p. 345 is the citation recorded in v1877 for [Robert] Nares’s reference to More. More has another reference at 290.29 “aneled.” 195.22: “ anelyng of sycke” (also 88.18; 296.13; 297.20; 688.14).

762 King Henry VIII (1536) no longer includes the sacrament of exteme unction, it appears, and he criticizes and tells all churchmen to teach that purgatory is a fable and prayers for the dead are not necessary.I am reading this from a microfilm at the HL, STC mf. 10033.6, which is very unclear. This is at the Bodeleian, Chelsea Public Library, BL, Corpus Christi College at Oxford, also Oxford University College, bound with STC 5164. I found a reference in Howes’s continuation of Stow’s Annales, 1531, 573a, line 50. It’s probably also in Howes, 1615.

762 vnanueld] Bonner (1555), in “Of the sacramente of extreme vnction, and the exposition or declaration thereof,” writes, “whensoeuer anye greate maladye, or peryllous syckenes, shall come to anye man, in soo muche that he who is daungerously sycke, and there fore anoyled and anoynted, receyuynge, and vsyinge thys sacramente, may (yf he escape the daunger, and after fal into it agayne, or into any other suchelyke) haue ministred vnto hym agayne thys laudable, and notable sacrament of entreame vnction....” (sig. Ddii v, and sig. Ddiiii v) Later, Bonner notes: “wordes of S. James do manifestelye declare this vnction or anoyling to be a sacrament as hauynge a visible sygne....” [sig. Ddiiiiv]

Ed. note: Ref. to Bonner in Hawkins, ed. 1771 (han3.)

762 Vnhuzled] Holinshed (1577, sig. Ppp 7): re to housel: “The king and queene descended, and before the high Aulter, they were both houseled, with one host diuided betweene them.”

762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] Holinshed (apud Nares): “‘Also children were christened and men houseled and annoyled through all the land.’ Holinshed, vol. ii. N 6.”

Ed. note: See Steevens, v1778, below.

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Spenser (F.Q. 2.10.5): “Vnpeopled, vnmanurd, vnprou’d, vnpraysd,”

762 Vnhuzled] Spenser (F.Q. 1.12.37): “His owne two hands, for such a turne most fit, The housling fire did kindle and prouide, And holy water thereon sprinckled wide . . . .”

762 Hamilton (1600, pp. 401-5) <p. 402> discusses the important spiritual comfort afforded the dying by a priestly administration of extreme unction. </p. 402><p. 403> He faults Calvinists for depriving the dying of that spiritual help, and of laying open the desperately ill to the promptings of the devil. <p. 404>

In contrast, the “Cathalogue of Heresies” (sig. X2r -X2v), which concludes the book, states the Calvinist view that extreme unction is not a sacrament, that it can have no efficacy, that no one should say the priest’s prayers over the sick.”

762 disappointed]

Ed. note: Does not have the lengthy description of Charles Danvers’ death found in Howes’s continuation of 1615 and 1631.

762 disappointed] Cotgrave (1611): “À Poinct: . . . Prendre in quelqu-un a son mal à poinct. To take one unprovided. ”

762 disappointed] Howes (1615, p. 795) Sir Charles Danvers, “hauing put off his Gowne and Dublet in most cheerefull manner, rather like a bridegroome, then a prisoner appointed for death,” laid his head upon the block. He seemed to smile.

Ed. note: See also n. 3813

762 vnanueld] H. Spelman (1626):

Ed. note: Sir Henry Spelman’s Glossary [Archæologus Glossarii.] includes the following under “An”: “Quin & dictionibus nonnunquam adiungitur: si quidem vel maioris notationis gratiâ, vt [a phrase in Greek here, which J.B. simply omits] vel ad singulare aliquid siue vnicum demonstrandum” [p. 35]. See Brand, below. Must be translated.

762 Vnhuzled] Chettle (1631, ll. lines 2027-2033, sig. I2): “Mar. Alas! poore son, the soule of my delights; Thou in thy end wert rob’d of Funerall rites, None sung thy requiem, noe friend close’d thine eyes, Nor layd the hallowed earth vpon thy lips, Thou wert not houseled, neither did the bells ring Blessed peales, nor towle thy funerall knell, Thou wentst to death, as those that sinke to hell . . . . Where is the apparrell that I bad him weare Against the force of witches and their spells.” [sig. I 2]

Ed. note: Chettle’s is an interesting connection between houseling and ringing of bells, in what may be an allusion to Hamlet. Of course a difference is that the son’s body was not discovered, as was King Hamlet’s, who was laid to rest with all ceremony, as Hamlet says (632-6).

762 Vnhuzled ,vnanueld] Malory (1634 ed., 3:175:sig. Pp3, apud T. T. in v1773): “So when hee was howseled and eneled, and had all that a christian man ought to have, hee prayed the Bishoip that his fellowes might beare his body unto Joyous gard.”

762 Vnhuzled] Blount (1656): “Howsel (Sax.) to minister Sacraments to a sick man in danger of death. Bull. The receiving of the Sacraments. Rider.”

762 vnanueld] Blount (1656): “Anneale. . . to annoint, or do any thing with oyl.”

762 Vnhuzled] Skinner (1671, sig. Ccccc): “houseld, received the Sacrament. ab. AS husel, Eucharistia [. . .]. Sacramentum Administrare.”

762 disappointed] Skinner (1671, sig. Bb4): “nobis Praestinare, Condicere, Praestituere [. . .], Decidere , [. . .] Reconciliare, q.d. Adpunctuare, [. . .].”

762 vnanueld] Skinner (1671, sig. Uuuu3): “Annealed, Unctus, à praep. Teut. An, &.Ole, Oleum.”

762 Vnhuzled] Thirlby (ms. notes, ed. 1709):

762 vnanueld] Spelman (1710, p. 17 n.10): “Now though it be commonly reckoned that Ælfred was the first Annointed King of Engliand, and therefore Robert of Gloucester thus expresses [fol. 73. b.] his journey and Inunction at Rome. ‘. . .That euer furst anoiled was of the Pope of Rome And sithe other aftir him, of the Archbischope ech one So that bifore him, Kynge anoiled was ther none.”

762 Vnhuzled] Gildon (1710, p. lxxii): “Unhouzzled. Without the Sacrament.”

762 vnanueld] Gildon (1710, p. lxxii): “Unanneal’d. Without Extream Unction, that is Unanointed.”

762 Vnhuzled] Pope (ed. 1723): Ҡ unhouzzled, without the sacrament being taken.

762 disappointed] Pope (ed. 1723): Ҡ unanointed, without extream unction.

762 vnanueld] Pope (ed. 1723): “† unanel’d, no knell rung.

Ed. note: Though Theobald challenges them, Pope’s def. are repeated and repeated in subsequent editions, but not with much attention paid to them. Pope is of course the 1st to attempt to define them, in three of his rare explanatory notes. Perhaps because he was a Catholic, other editors considered him an expert in these matters.

762 Vnhuzled] Thirlby (1723-): “Huzel eucharistia. Somner.”

762 disappointed ] Thirlby (1723-): re “unanointed,” noting that Rowe and Q3 have disappointed, “Perhaps unanointed is a glossima, ut [several words unclear?] or perhaps it is rather a contraction of disappointed.”

762 vnanueld] Thirlby (1723-): “I think unanel’d signifies without extream unction. Why do I say, I think? I know it to be so. v. More agst Tindale.” I can’t make out the end of his comment but I think he does not say anything vital. I could not make out this part in mtby3 either.

762 Theobald (1726; pp. 52-53, 55): <p.52>“The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father, having recounted to him the Process of his Murther, proceeds to exaggerate the Inhumanity and Unnaturalness of the Fact, from the Circumstances in which he was surprized. [quotes Pope]

† Unhouzzled, † Unanointed, † unanel’d ;

To which three Words Mr Pope has subjoined this Gloss [quotes pope notes]:

† unhouzzled, without the Sacrament being taken.

† unanointed, without extream unction.

† unanel’d, no knell rung.

“I am very much afraid (and as apt to believe I shall prove it, to the Satisfaction of every Judge, before this Note is ended;) that this Passage is neither rightly read, nor, as it is read, rightly explained, throughout. In the first Place, instead of unhouzzled it ought to be restor’d—unhousel’d; from the old Saxon </p.52> <p.53> Word for the Sacrament, husel. So our Etymologists, and Chaucer write it; and Spencer, accordingly, calls the Sacramental Fire, housling Fire. This, however, is but a trivial Slip, in comparison with the next that offers itself. I don’t pretend to know what Glossaries Mr. Pope may have consulted, and trusts to; but whose soever they are, I am sure, their Comment is very singular upon the Word I am about to mention. I cannot find any Authority to countenance unaneal’d in signifying, no Knell rung. This is, if I mistake not, what the Greeks were used to call an ‘àpaj legónon, an Interpretation that never was used but once. Nor, indeed, can I see how this participial Adjective should be formed from the Substantive knell. It could not possibly throw out the k, or receive in the a. We have an instance in the Poet himself, where the participial Adjective of the Verb simple from this Substantive retains the k ; and so Mr. Pope writes it there. Macbeth, pag. 598 [5.s.l. (2496-8)] ‘Had I as many Sons, as I have Hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer Death; And so his Knell is knoll’d.’ The Compound Adjective, therefore, from that Derivation must have been written unknell’d ; (or, unknoll’d ;) a Word which will by no Means fill the Poet’s Verse, were there no stronger Reasons to except against it; as it unluckily happens, there are. Let us see what Sense the Word unanel’d then bears. Skinner, in his Lexicon of Old and Obsolete English Terms, tells us, that Anealed is unctus; a Præp. Teut: An, and Ole, Oleum: so that unanealed must consequently signify, Not being anointed, or, not having the extream Unction. But what must we then do with the Word, immediately preceding it, unanointed? For, the Addition of it is such a manifest and absurd Tautology, as Shakespeare could not be guilty of. We must therefore have Recourse to the Various Readings, and see if any printed Copies will help us out. The Second Edition in Folio, the Quarto in 1637, the </p.53> <p. 55> Hamlet revised by Mr. Hughs, and several other Impressions, all read, instead of unanointed, ‘—Disappointed, unanel’d;’ as I verily believe it ought to be read. Now, the word Appoint, among other Significations, has that of composing, reconciling: and the Word Disappointed consequently means, unreconcil’d to Heaven, unabsolv’d, and no Appointment of Penance or Atonement made for Sin; a Work of the utmost Concern and Moment to a dying Person. And our Poet, I remember, in another of his Plays, as Othello is at the very Point of killing his Wife upon the Suspicion of Adultery, makes him exhort her thus: Othello. pag. 587. [5.s.l. (3268-70)] ‘If you bethink yourself of any Crime, Unreconcil’d as yet to Heav’n and Grace, Sollicit for it strait. —’ But it happens very luckily too, in Support of the Old Reading which is necessary to be restor’d here, that the Poet has again, in another Play, made use of Appointment in this very Sense of Reconciliation. In Measure for Measure, Claudio is sentenced to die for having debauched a Maiden, and his Sister brings him Word, That his Execution is to be instant; therefore bids him prepare his Self-examination, and to make his Peace with Heaven with all Speed. Measure for Measure, pag. 361. [a.s.l. (1265-9)] Lord Angelo, having Affairs to Heav’n, Intends you for his swift Ambassador; Where you shall be an everlasting Leiger. Therefore your best Appointment make with Speed, To morrow you set out. </p. 55> <p. 54> So that, this Reading and this Sense being admitted, the Tautology is taken away; and the Poet very finely makes his Ghost complain of these four dreadful Hardships, viz. That He had been dispatch’d out of Life without receiving the ( hoste, or) Sacrament; without being reconciled to Heaven and absolved; without the Benefit of extream 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 Roman Church admits the Efficacy of Praying for the Dead. </p. 54>

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

762 Vnhuzled] Sewell (ed. 1728, Glossary, 10:56): “Unhosted. without the sacrament.”

762 vnanueld] Sewell (ed. 1728, Glossary, 10:56): “Unknelled. without the Passing Bell going for a dying Man.”

762 Vnhuzled] Bailey (1730): Housel fro Sax. huyel: “the Eucharist or Sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Bailey (1730): fr. Fr. des and appointer:“to deceive, to fail or break one’s word, to overthrow or spoil a design.”

762 Theobald (ed. 1733): “(19) Unhouzzled, unanointed, unaneal’d;] The Ghost, having recounted the Process of his Murther, proceeds to exaggerate the Inhumanity and Unnaturalness of the Fact, from the Circumstances in which he was surpriz’d. But these, I find, have been stumbling Blocks to our Editor; and therefore I must emend and explain these 3 compound Adjectives in their Order.”

762 Vnhuzled] Theobald (ed. 1733): “Instead of unhouzzl’d, we must restore, unhousel’d, i.e. without the Sacrament taken; from the old Saxon Word for the Sacrament, housel. [So our Etymologists, and Chaucer write it; and Spencer, accordingly, calls the Sacramental Fire, housling Fire.]”

762 disappointed ] Theobald (ed. 1733): “In the next place, unanointed is a Sophistication of the Text: the old Copies concur in reading, disappointed. I correct, ‘Unhousel’d, unappointed,—’ i.e., no Confession of Sins made, no Reconciliation to Heaven, no Appointment of Penance by the Church. [To this purpose Othello speaks to his Wife, when he is upon the Point of killing her; ‘If you bethink your self of any Crime, Unreconcil’d as yet to Heav’n and Grace, Sollicit for it strait.

“So in Measure for Measure, when Isabella brings word to Claudio that he is to be instantly executed, she urges him to the necessary Duty; ‘Therefore your best Appointment make with Speed, To Morrow you set out.’]”

762 vnanueld] Theobald (ed. 1733): “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. [I don’t pretend to know what Glossaries Mr. Pope may have consulted and trusts to; but whosesoever they are, I am sure, their Comment is very singular in the Word alledg’d.] The Adjective form’d from Knell, must have been unknell’d or unknoll’d. [So in Macbeth; ‘Had I as many Sons, as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer Death; And so his Knell is knoll’d.’]

“There is no Rule in Orthography for sinking the k in the Deflexion of any Verb or Compound form’d 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 Preposition an, and Ole, i.e. Oil; so that unaneal’d must consequently signify, unanointed, not having extream Unction. So that the Poet’s Reading and Explication being ascertain’d, he very finely makes his Ghost complain of these four dreadful Hardships; That he had been dispatch’d out of Life without receiving the Hoste, or Sacrament; without being reconcil’d to Heaven and absolv’d; without the Benefit of extream 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.”

Ed. note: Square brackets show how the publisher of theo2, theo3, theo4 cut the note, eliminating Theobald’s analogues and parallels. Later Theobald editions (after john1) restored the theo1 notes. For Unhousel’d, theo1 agrees with Pope about the def. but not abt. spelling; however he does not make that clear; one could assume he disagrees about both if one did not have pope1 to hand; in theon, he quotes pope1 completely.

For disappointed, he corrects to unappointed without explaining why disappointed will not do; he had kept disappointed in theon. He does not, I think, mention the word in his letters to Warburton, but it is possible that Warburton, in a lost letter to him, persuaded him to make the change.

762 Vnhuzled] Thirlby (1733-): refers back to his pope1 notes, which see.

762 disappointed ] Thirlby (1733-) In addition to copying his Pope notes, he refers to WT a.s.l (2468), with a reference there to Ham.: “Florizel . . . . We are not furnish’d like Bohemia ’s son.” To which Camilla replies: “it shall be my care to have you royally appointed” Re Theobald’s note, he says, “Ridiculous. The meaning is, in general, unprepar’d.” He also cites “Cotgrave in Poinct: prendre in quelqu-un a son mal a poinct, to take one unprovided. ν ” Referring, I think, to Theobald’s change to unappointed, Thirlby says, “A . . . [illegible Latin], or perhaps it is rather a correction of disappointed.”

<n ν > Thirlby (1733-): “has not this sense in Desapointer.” </n ν >

762 vnanueld] Thirlby (1733-): “Perhaps unaneal’d.”

762 Stubbs (1736, pp. 23-4) <p. 23> “We are to observe further that the King spurs on his Son to revenge his foul and unnatural Murder from these two Considerations chiefly, that he was sent into the other World without having had Time to repent of his Sins, and without the necessary Sacraments, (according to the Church of Rome,) as mr. Theobalds, (See his Note, p. 253 [762] has well explained it, and that consequently his Soul was </p. 23> <p. 24> to suffer, if not eternal Damnation, at least a long Course of Penance in Purgatory; which aggravates the Circumstances of his Brother’s Barbarity. And Secondly, That Denmark might not be the Scene of Usurpation and Incest, and the Throne thus polluted and profaned. For these Reasons he prompts the young Prince to Revenge; else it would have been more becoming the Character of such a Prince as Hamlet’s Father is represented to have been, and more suitable to his present Condition, to have left his Brother to the Divine Punishment, and to a Possibility of Repentance for his base Crime, which by cutting him off, he must be deprived of.” </p. 24>

Ed. note: See also 767

762 Vnhuzled] Hanmer (ed. 1743, 6: Glossary): “Unhousel’d without having received the Sacrament. Housel is a Saxon word for the Eucharist, which seems derived from the Latin Hostiola.”

762 disappointed ] Hanmer (ed. 1743, 6: Glossary): “Unanointed not having received extreme unction.”

762 vnanueld] Hanmer (ed. 1743, 6: Glossary): “unanneal’d unprepared. To anneal or neal in its primary or proper sense is to prepare metals or glass by the force of fire for different uses of the manufacturers in them; and this is here applied by the Author in a figurative sense to a dying person, who when prepared for impressions of piety, by repentance, confessions, absolution, and other acts of Religion, may be said to be anneal’d for death.”

Ed. note: To go with his def of the last word, spells it with two “n’s”

762 Upton (1746, p. 189) notes: “Again in that well-known place where the ghost speeks to Hamlet, nothing, as it seems to me, should be altered but a trifling spelling: ‘‘Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouzzled, disappointed, ananeal’d.’

762 Vnhuzled] Upton (1746, p. 190): UnhouseL’d, i.e. not having received the sacrament. <g>Housel </g>, is the eucharist or sacrament. Sax. <g> husl </g>. Lat. hostiola: <g> to housel </g>, is to give the sacrament to one on his death-bed: And certes ones a year at lest it is to be houseled. Chaucer in the parson’s tale, p. 212 [Urry ed.] page no.?.

Ed. note: <g> = Gothic font

762 disappointed ] Upton (1746, p. 190): “Disappointed, having missed of my appointment by the priest; not confessed and not absolved. Appointment is so used in [MM 3.1.59 (1268)]. Your best appointment make with speed; i.e. what reconciliation for your sins, what penance is appointed you.”

762 vnanueld] Upton (1746, p. 190): <190> “Unanneil’d, not having the last <g> anneylynge </g>, extreme unction: <g> aneled </g>, anoyled, from the Lat. oleo inunctus.” </190>

<n.3> Upton (1746, p. 189): <p. 189> “Mr. Theobald has very rightly explain’d this passage; but why instead of disappointed he substitutes unappointed, I can’t find any reason; nor does he himself give any. In some editions, without any authority or critical skill, they have printed, Unhousel’d, unanointed, unanneal’d. </p. 189></n.3>

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

Ed. note: For 1st word, warb does change the spelling (so had han), but w/o mentioning Theobald, and giving the credit to "Mr. Pope" for the definition (as he should, i.e., instead of taking it himself, though Gildon probably has a prior claim).

For the other words, he uses pope’s definitions, wrongheadedly, and has no further discussion.

762 Vnhuzled] Upton (1748, 2: 179-80): <p. 180>“Spencer. B. i. c. 12. st. 37. ‘His own two hands, for such a turn most fit, The housling fire did kindle and provide, And holy water thereon sprinkled wide.’ i.e. the sacramental fire. Alluding to the ancientn.6 custom of marriages.

<n.6> Upton (1748 n. 6): See Plutarch. In Quæst. Roman. And hence Ovid is to be explained in Epist. XIII. v. 9. Hypermnestra to Lynceus. ‘Me pater igne licet, quem non violavimus, urat.’ And Lib. II. Art. Amat. v. 597.‘Ista viri captent (si jam captanda putabunt) Quos faciunt justos ignis et unda viros.’” </n6> </p.180>

762 vnanueld] Upton (1748, 2:180-1) also adds a portion to Unanneal’d, after “oleo inuctus”[or as he spells it Unanneil’d]: <p.180> “This word I find used by Holingshed [sic], in the life of </p.180> <p.181> K. John; speaking of the interdiction laid on the King and this land by the Pope, he adds, ‘It was not so streit, for there were diverse places occupied with divine service all that time, by certeine priviledges purchased either then or before. Children were also christened, and men <g> houseled </g> and <g> annoiled </g> through all the land, except such as were in the bill of excommunication by name expressed.’ I cannot here but admire the ignorance as well as boldness of those editors, who have changed this undoubtedly genuine reading.” </p.181>

762 Dodd (1752, 1: 228-30) <n 14)> <p.228>“Unhousel’d, &c.] This line has created the editors much trouble: both the words and the sense of them having been disputed. The old editions read, unhouzzell’d, disappointed, un-aneal’d.—

762 Vnhuzled] Dodd (1752, 1: 228-9): <p. 228> “Of the signification of the first word there is no dispute, all agreeing, unhousel’d means, without having received the </p.228><p.229> (housel) host or eucharist: </p. 229>

762 disappointed ] Dodd (1752, 1: 229): <p. 229>“the second, Mr. Theobald [ed. 1733] alters to unappointed, which he explains by, ‘no confession of sins made, no reconciliation to heaven, no appointment of penance by the church.’ This reading is generally disregarded, and when we find unanointed almost universally prevail, the sense of which, as indisputably as of the first word in the line, is determined to be, without extreme unction.

762 vnanueld] Dodd (1752, pp. 229-30): <p. 229>“Unaneal’d, now alone remains unconsider’d: Mr. Theobald says, it must signify, without extreme unction; Mr. Pope explains it by, no knell rung: the Oxford editor [Hanmer], by unprepared: and his explication is certainly mostly just: ‘The anneal or neal in its primary and proper sense, is to prepare metals or glass by the force of fire, for the different uses of the manufacturers in them: and this is here applied by the author in a figurative sense to a dying person, who when prepared by impressions of piety, by repentance, confession, absolution, and other acts of religion, may be said to be annealed for death.’ Thus, as it seems the sense of the words is clear, and the passage plain. I apprehend, the word should certainly have been unaknell’d, to bear the sense Mr. Pope gives it: however, be that as it will, we must certainly allow Mr. Pope to have been a proper commentator here. There are more arguments still to support the reading in the text: an attentive person must find great pleasure in looking, as it were, into the mind of his author; and, as our thoughts on any subject always succeed in train, and are nicely associated, be much delighted with finding out that train, and tracing those associations. Let us see if we cannot do so in this passage: the poet is speaking of the misfortune of being cut off in the blossom of our sins, when we have had no means to attone for them, or to receive the benefits of religion; these benefits must naturally arise in the mind: the greatest of which it is natural to suppose would occur first, the blessed sacrament, the immediate consequence of which is, extreme unction; two so important and necessary branches of duty, that the loss of these was the loss of all, and we may reasonably expect he should particularize no more, but add—I was not only depriv’d of these, but also of every other preparation, and without any kind of reckoning made, sent to my last and horrible account.’ If we were to admit Mr. Pope’s sense of the word, we must imagine our author’s thoughts carried still farther; ‘without the host, without unction, without enjoying the benefits of the passing </p.229><p.230> bell,’ which used to toll while the person lay expiring, and thence was so called: nay, this shocking custom still prevails in some parts of England.—The run of the line is no bad argument in support of the reading of the text: this manner of beginning each word with the same syllable is not unfrequent with the Greek tragedians nor our best poets; and besides, it adds great strength and beauty. ‘Unrespited, unpitied, unreprov’d [unrepreev’d].’ Milton [P.L. 2. 185] [Bentley, p.43; Orgel & Goldberg, p. 380]. ‘Unshaken, unseduc’d, unterrified [unterrify’d].’ [P.L. 5. 895-6] And numberless other instances, if necessary, might easily be brought. Mr. Upton [1748] explains disappointed and unaneal’d, the same as Mr. Theobald, whom he condemns for altering disappointed; which he esteems the genuine reading, and tells us, ‘He cannot but admire the ignorance as well as the boldness of these editors who have chang’d it.’ Observations on Shakespear, p. 181.” </p. 230>

Ed. note: Dodd is unfair to Theobald because Upton’s remark about “the boldness of these editors” does not follow the section on disappointed, but concludes the section on unanneal’d, upon which Theobald and Upton agree.

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

Ed. note: theo4 was the edition john used; therefore he did not have Theobald’s full arguments.

762 Vnhuzled] Upton (1758, 2:425) has the following note on the stanza 1.12.37 (see above under Spenser 1596): “He [Spenser] alludes to the marriages of antiquity, which were solemnized, Sacramento ingnis et aquæ: the reasons for which, see in Plutarch’s Roman Questions.—Housling fire, i.e. Sacramental fire, or fire used in the sacrament of marriage. Anglo-S. <g> husel </g>, the Sacrament. <g> husel, husl-disce </g>, the Communion Cup. Goth. <g> hunsl </g>, victima, sacrificium. Chaucer uses the word frequent[ly], as to ben housled, to receive the Sacrament. Shakespeare in Hamlet. Act. I. unhousel’ed, i.e. not having received the Sacrament. ‘Tis very easy to trace this word from the Latin, Hostia (from whence the consecrated wafer in the Roman church is called the Host) Hostia, hostiola, Anglo-S. husel, housle.”

762 disappointed, vnanueld] Heath (1765, pp. 533-4) says, <p.533> “The word [i.e. Pope’s], unanointed, is undoubtedly wrong, since it is of exactly the same signification as that which immediately follows, unanel’d. The old copies, as Mr. Theobald informs us, concur in giving us, disappointed, that is, prevented from making any preparation, or, as Shakespear elsewhere calls it, ap- </p.533> <p.534> pointment, for death, such as confession and absolution by the priest; for this I take, in concurrence with Mr. Upton in his Critic. Observ. p. 189, to be the true import of the word. Mr. Theobald in his Shakespear restored, p. 52-55 agrees in approving the same reading, though afterwards, on publishing his edition, he thought proper to alter his opinion, and to substitute for it, unappointed, though unsupported by any edition or indeed any reason, at least which he hath vouchsafed to give.”</p.534>

762 vnanueld] Johnson (ed. 1765): “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 enquiry satisfied myself. Hanmer’s explication of unanneal’d by unprepared, 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.

762 disappointed ] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Disappointed is the same as unappointed, and may be properly explained as unprepared; a man well furnished with things necessary for any enterprise, was said to be well appointed.”

762 Vnhuzled, vnanueld] Tollet (ms. notes in Heath, p. 534): “See my Shakespeare and Textus Roffensis, p. 294.”

762 Hutten (Rpt. 1720, pp. 294-5): <p. 294>The author, Leonardi Hutteni, of the antiquities portion of Textus Roffensis writes of a group of priests who abjured, quietly, the secular emoluments “and, under pretence of greater Holynes and Perfection then the Monkes, contented themselves with such benevolences and voluntary Contributions onelie, as the good affections and holy devotions of God’s people should conferr upon them, offering themselves to performe all Priestly functions of houseling and aueling, (as they then cald it,) that is, of hearing Confessions and giveing [sic] Absolutions, of saying Prayers, and ministering the Sacraments, and all other Ecclesi- </p. 294> </p. 295> asticall duties and observances, and further of obliging and devoting themselves to the proper attendances and dayly walkes...” &c. </p.295>

762 vnanueld] Anon. [Z] (SJC 1154 (July 21-23, 1768): “This Word has been variously written, and variously interpreted: [and he gives a fair summary of Pope, Theobald and Hanmer]. Perhaps, after all, the proper Reading may be unannul’d, from annulus [[a Ring]], the obvious Signification of which is, without a Ring on the Finger. Dr. Ducarel, in a curious Work published last Year, entitled Anglo-Norman Antiquities considered, &c. shews it to have been the general Practice to bury our ancient Kings with Rings upon their Fingers; and mentions particularly the Will of Richard II, who directs that he would be buried in this Manner, according to Royal Custom. This Custom might, probably, prevail in Denmark, as it did in this Kingdom; and, if so, will serve to explain this Passage, which has been given up by Mr. Johnson, with many others of the Critics, and has proved a Puzzle to all. I am, Sir, your’s, &c. Ock—n, in Essex, June 3. Z.”

762 disappointed] Anon. [Z] (1154 (July 21-23, 1768), 4n, arguing for unannointed: “Mr. Johnson reads disappointed, in the sense of unprepared; but it is not probable that the Ghost should use so general a Term, when he is specifying the particular Kinds of Preparation he wanted when sent to the Grave, viz. the Hoste, —‘unhousel’d’—Confession and Absolution—“No Reckoning made”— &c. The idea of his general Unpreparedness had been fully expressed in the Line preceding, ‘Cut off even in the Blossoms of my Sin.’”

762 Gentleman (1770, 1: 18): <p. 18> says the line shows “The Roman catholic opinion of . . . funeral rites, or preparation thereto ”</p. 18>

762 vnanueld] Hawkins (ed. 1771, 6: Glossary): “There is reason to suspect the word unanneal’d is sophisticate, as well as the preceding, unanointed. The old quarto gives the whole line thus: ‘Unnuzzled, disappointed, un-aueld.’ The three first folios read, ‘Unhuzzled, disappointed, unnaneld.’ Bishop Bonner in his sacrament of extreme unction joins the words together:—‘He who is dangerously sick,’ says he, ‘and therefore anoyled and anoynted &c.’ And King Henry in his exposition of the same sacrament uses the word annoyled. Quare therefore if we should not read the whole line as follows: ‘Unhousel’d, disannointed, unanoil’d.’ ”

Ed. note: This annotator, with a ref. to Bonner, might have written c. 1771 because his note is similar to Hawkins’s for han3.

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Anon.[M.C.] (St. James’s Chr. 1668 [31 Oct. - 2 Nov. 1771]: 2): “This line has exercised the critical Abilities of every Editor of Shakespear; and no one has yet, in my Opinion, explained the true Sense of the Author.

“The first Word, unhouzzled, or rather unhouseld, (which Theobald, merrily enough, calls a Restoration) it is agreed on all Hands, means, without the Sacrament taken, as T. expresses it.

“Disappointed—The Reading of the old Copies, the same Critic tells us, is a Sophistication, and boldly corrects it thus, unappointed; that it, says he, no Confession of Sins made, no Reconciliation to Heaven, no Appointment of Penance by the Church. Johnson reads DISappointed; which, he tells us, is the same as Unappointed, and may properly be explained, unprepared. Sir Thomas Hanmer gives us unanointed, in which he is followed by the judicious and most accurate Mr. Capell; which must, no Doubt, signify not having extreme Unction.

“The last Word, unaneld, has occasioned the greatest Perplexity. Mr. Pope tells us, it means no Knell rung. Johnson owns Theobald’s Objection to this very strong. Theobald himself explains unnaueld, or, as it is spelt in modern Editions, unanneal’d, unannointed; for Skinner, he says, calls anneal’d, unctus. I agree with Johnson, that Sir Thomas Hanmer’s Explication of unanneal’d, by unprepared, because to anneal Metal is to prepare them in Manufacture, it too general and vague; there is no Resemblance between any funeral Ceremony and the Practice of annealing Bodies. The older Folio gives the Line as above, ‘Unhouzzled, disappointed, unnaneld.’ [Review of editions through john]

“The passage is allowed, on all Hands, to be corrupt; and this Corruption, I am inclined to think, was owing to the Ignorance or Negligence of the first Transcribers. I think we may read the Words, with little Deviation from the Traces of the Letters, thus: ‘Unhouseld, disannointed, unanoil’d’

“The Lovers of Shakespeare will at least excuse, if they will not admit the Propriety, of this Reading. M.C.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed] Anon. [B.A.] (SJC no. 1671 [7-9 Nov. 1771]: 1): “Unhouzzled, I think, is unconfess’d, and borrowed from the French Word Housser, to sweep with a long Broom.

“Dissappointed is unabsolved, and alludes to those interlocutory Orders, or Judgements, which are made previous to a final Decree, which are said in French to be appointed. The Word Anneal I have explained in a former Paper. The rest no reckoning made, but sent to my Account with all Imperfections on my Head, have an obvious Allusion and lead to the Sense of the Former.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Anon. [Vericola] (SJC no. 1682 [3-5 Dec. 1771): 2): “UNHOUZZLED” does not at all mean any Thing relative to the Sacrament, as in your Chronicle of Saturday the 2d inst. it was said to have been ‘agreed on all Hands.’ It is an English Transliteration of an old French proverbial Expression laisir ses Housseaux (unhouzzled) said of a dead Man, metaphorically taken from an ancient Custom of a Debtor’s renouncing or giving up his all, stripping, diseinctus, sinc vestibus, desceinct & sans Hausseaux. This is the Plural of Houssel; a Word never much in Use, and long antiquated; it means Cover, Clothes, and being generalized, Goods. This may be seen more at large in L’Explication des Proverbes François, by Bellingen, Page. 93.

“DISAPPOINTED, is it stands in the Old Copies, is exactly right, and requires no Alteration. The French Word from which it was taken, and which is now obsolete (desappointe) had a very different Sense from our English Word disappointed, in its present Signification. It meant unprepared or unfit at all Points. The changing this for unannointed, is the less warrantable, as it would lead inevitably to a Pleonasm in the subsequent Word.

“UNANELD, which manifestly means unanointed. The Sacrament of extreme Unction was termed an oyling. So late as the Year 1621 it is thus expressed in the Counter-Catalogue of Sectaries, Page 47.

“The three Archaisms then of this Line, reduced to modern Language, would nearly stand thus: ‘Death-struck, unprepared, unanointed.’

“Most probably, in Shakespeare’s Time, those Words borrowed from other Languages, and adapted to our Idiom, were in Vogue, and currently understood by his Audiences, though they now bear an uncouth exotic Sound, and even require a Glossary to explain them: Such a Work, well executed, might also collaterally have its Utility for ascertaining the Origin of many Words, actually at this Instant in familiar Use. VERICOLA.”

762 vnanueld ] Anon. [B.A.] (SJC no 1687 (14-17 Dec. 1771]: 3): “The Word Anneal hath two Significations: to temper, when spoken of Glass or Metals; to season, when spoken of Vessels, that are to contain, or be contained in Fire. Before this preparatory Seasoning they are said to be Raw; after, to be clean or purged; and then, and not till then, they are able to bear the fiercest Fires unhurt. The Analogy between this Practice, and the Doctrine of Absolution, Unction, and Purgatory, is alluded to in this and other Passages of the Play. Unannealed—to fast in Fires—till foul Crimes are burnt and purged away; are all Images borrowed from, and expressed in the very Terms of, annealing an Oven; which, though familiar to Housewifes, is however one of those Things, which a learned Commentator may be ignorant of without reproach.

762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] Tollet (ms. notes in Theobald, ed. 1740): “Herne’s Edition of Textus Roffensis, p, 294, mentions housling and auelyng &c.” Aneil & Aniel means win [within?] Gospell, See Borlase’s Cornish Vocabulary.”

Ed. note: 762 may have influenced Herne’s trans. of the 11th-c work.

762 disappointed ] Tollet (ms. notes in ed. 1740): “Holinshed [3:79] of his history says ‘The Pope appointed them, i.e., the murderers of Abp. Becket, to go unto Jerusalem, there to do their penance.’”

762 vnanueld] Tollet (ms. notes in Upton, ed. 1740): “anoiled is an old English word used by Rob[ert] of Gloucester See Spelman’s Life of Alfred: “Now though it be commonly reckoned that Ælfred was the first Annointed King of Engliand, and therefore Robert of Gloucester thus expresses [fol. 73. b.] his journey and Inunction at Rome. . . . ‘That euer furst anoiled was of the Pope of Rome And sithe other aftir him, of the Archbischope ech one So that bifore him, Kynge anoiled was ther none.”

762 vnanueld] Tollet (ms. note in Upton, 1748, p. 190) on unanneil’d.

762 vnanueld] Jennens (ed. 1773): “It is hardly to be doubted that Shakespeare wrote unanoil’d. To anoil was a common phrase in use in his time, meaning the same as to anoint. The Rhemish testament with annotations, printed 1582, translate James v.14. thus, ‘Is any man sicke among you? let him bring in the priestes of the churche, and let them pray over him, anoiling him with oile in the name of our Lord’ And in the annotations of this passage we read, ‘ —whom the apostle willeth to be called for to anoil the sick and to pray for him, &c.

“Again, ‘Anoiling with oile] Here is the sacrament of extreme unction so plainly promulgated (for it was instituted, as all other sacraments of the new testament, by our Saviour Christ himself, and as Venerable Bede thinketh, and other ancient writers, the anoiling of the sick with oilem Marc. vi. pertaineth thereunto) that some heretikes, for the evidence of this place also (as of the other for good works) deny the epistle, &c. ’

“And lest it be objected, that Shakespeare, who in general makes use of the word anoint, would have used it here if that had been his meaning; if we turn to the above-mentioned Rhemish testament, Mark vi.13. we read, And they cast out many divels, and anointed with oile many sicke, and healed them. So that anoil and anoint were words indifferently used at that time.”

762 disappointed] Steevens (ed. 1773): “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 you 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. Milton has the following lines, consisting of three words each, in which it [alliteration] is constantly preserved. ‘Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev’d. ’ [P.L. 2.185]. ‘——unmov’d, Unshaken, unseduc’d, unterrified.’ [5.895-6]. ‘Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreform’d.’ ” [P. R. 3.429] [in Orgel and Goldberg’s Milton, this is: “Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,” p. 653]

762 Vnhuzled ,vnanueld] Steevens (ed. 1773) : “In the Textus Roffensis we meet with two of these words— ‘The monks offering themselves to perform all priestly functions of houseling and aueyling.’ Aueyling, I believe, is misprinted for aneyling.” Steevens.

762 Vnhuzled ,vnanueld] T. T [Tyrwhitt] (apud. ed. 1773): “See Mort d ’ Arthur, [3:175] [part 3, chapter 175] ‘So when he was houseled and aneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have,’ &c. T.T. ”

762 vnanueld] Hawkins (in Steevens, ed 1773, 10: Nn6v): “There is reason to suspect the word unanneal’d is sophisticate, as well as the preceding, unannointed [i.e. in ed. 1771]. The old quarto gives the whole line thus: ‘Unnuzzled, disappointed, un-aueld.’ The three first folios read, ‘Unhouzzled, disappointed, unnaneld.’ Bishop Bonner in his sacrament of extreme unction joins the words together:—‘He who is dangerously sick,’ says he, ‘and therefore anoyled and anoyted, &c.’ And King Henry in his exposition of the same sacrament uses the word annoyled. Quare therefore if we should not read the whole line as follows: ‘Unhousel’d, disannointed, unanoil’d.’ ”

Ed. note: A note at the end of the 1st appendix says: “N. B. All the notes to which no names are subscribed, are taken from the last Oxford edition.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Capell (1774. 1: 1: Glossary) defines the three words as follows: “i.e., without receiving the Sacrament, without extream Unction, or Absolution in Articulo Mortis, here call’d —annealing, a Process of the Artists on Metals in Order to harden them. “Housel” is an old English Word for the Sacrament, or Host receiv’d in it, which Skinner derives from —Hostiola, parva Hostia. ”

From Nares: “[Cited eneled by Capel, School of Sh. p. 176]” under anele.” See below. I should look up Scool and see what I can find.

Ed. note: Capell’s Notes, 1st published in a part that included Ham., was withdrawn and not published in full until 1784.

762 vnanueld] Q. [Kynaston] (Gent. Mag. 44 [Oct. 1774]: 456), giving the line from Capell (ed. 1768), says, “This word has been variously written, and variously interpreted: [and he gives a fair summary of Pope, Theobald and Hanmer]. Perhaps, after all, the proper reading may be unannul’d, from annulus [[a ring]], the obvious signification of which is, without a ring on the finger. Dr. Ducarel, in a curious work published a few years ago, entitled Anglo-Norman Antiquities considered, &c. shews it to have been the general practice to bury our ancient Kings with rings upon their fingers; and mentions particularly the will of Richard II, who directs that he should be buried in this manner, according to the royal custom. This custom might, probably, prevail in Denmark, as it did in this kingdom; and, if so, will serve to explain this passage, which has been given up by Dr. Johnson, with some others of the critics, and has proved a puzzle to all.” Caerhaes, Cornwall. Oct. 18. Q.”

<n><p.456> ‡ Dr. Johnson reads disappointed, in the sense of unprepared; but it is not probable that the poet should use so general a term, when he is specifying the particular kinds of preparation the King wanted when sent to the grave, viz. the hoste, —‘unhousel’d;’ —confession and absolution —“no reckoning made,” &c. —The idea of his general unpreparedness had been fully expressed in the line preceding, ‘Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin.’ ” </p.456> </n>

762 disappointed , vnanueld] Ashby (1774, pp. 553-4) responds to Q: <p. 553> “A punster would say, the proposed reading (Oct. Mag. 456) of unannulled might be disannulled, notwithstanding the custom of Kings, and Bishops too, being buried with rings; for the sense of the whole passage clearly relates to solemn religious rites; which might </p.553> <p.554> have prevented his soul’s being in the unhappy condition in which it was by his own account. Nay, Hamlet tells us expressly that his father was royally buried in a ponderous tomb of marble; and, indeed, a defect in that point would have been as impolitic as unusual.

“If we read ‘unappointed,’ that may mean without the proper provision or appointments made for his long journey, by the prayers and absolution of a priest. Whether any spelling of unaneled will signify extreme unction, (which would thus stand in its proper place, and be perfectly significant,) I will not say, though [Greek] [Hardin, please help] seems to countenance it; and unanointed might be a marginal gloss to explain it. This I am certain of, that I have read (though I cannot now recover it) an account, in prose, of one of our King’s death, expressed much like this.”</p.554>

Ed. note: See Nichol’s Illus. 7: 396-7. Nichols identified Ashby as the person who responded to Q, and to whom Q responded.

762 disappointed , vnanueld] Q. [Kynaston] (1775, p. 80). <p.80> “Had your facetious correspondent (Dec. Mag. p. 553) who is for humorously disannuling the conjectural emendations in Hamlet by a pun, attended to the spelling of the word proposed —unannul’d (—October Mag. p. 456) he would have found one letter wanting, for this stroke of pleasantry. But, trifling apart, there seems to be much truth in his observation that, ‘the sense of the whole passage clearly relates to solemn religious rites.’ On this ground I cannot approve of his reading unappointed for unanointed. The term is too general; as the poet is evidently here describing the particular kinds of preparation which the King wanted, when sent to his grave, If we read ‘Unhousel’d, unanointed, unanel’d,’ and, with Pope, suppose this last word, however spelt, to signify no knell rung, then will it afford a proper meaning, and stand also in its proper place—immediately after extreme unction; the ringing of the knell being the last religious rite, which, in the days of Popish superstition (and, if I am not mistaken, much later too) was usually performed for the dying person; to the end that, at the sound of it, his soul, at its departure, (whence also the name, passing-bell) might receive the benefit of the prayers of all good Christian people. The want of a ceremony, so pious and so profitable withal, a spirit ‘doom’d for a certain term’ to the ‘prison house’ of purgatory, might well be supposed to deplore.”

Caerhaes, Cornwall. Q. </p.80>

762 Vnhuzled . . .vnanueld] Brand (Gent. Mag. 46 (March 1776): 124 [TLN 762] quotes F4 “Unhouzzled, disappointed, unaneld.” and then comments “The word unaneld has perplexed all the comentators: Pope explains it ‘having no knell rung.’—Hanmer supposes it to signify unprepared, because to anneal metals is to prepare them for manufacture. Theobald, indeed, guessed as the true meaning, but his explication has been invalidated by the learned Dr. Johnson, who, after having given the notes of his predecessors, observes, on his own authority, ‘that it is a difficult passage, and that he had not by his enquiry been able to satisfy himself.’ The subsequent extract from a very scarce and curious copy of Fabian’s Chronicle, printed by Pynsen, 1516, seems to remove every possibility of doubt concerning the true signification of the words unhouseld and unaneld. The historian, speaking of Pope Innocent’s having laid the whole the whole kingdom of England under an interdict, has these words: ‘Of the maner of this interdiction of this lande have I seen dyverse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that the lande was enterdyted thorowly and the Churchis and Housys of Relygyon closyd, that no where was used Masse, nor dyvyne Servyce, by whiche reason none of the VII Sacraments all this terme should be mynystred or occupyed, nor Chyld crystened, nor Man confessed nor marryed; but is was not so strayght. For there were dyverse placys in Englond, whiche were occupyed with dyvyne Servyce all that season by Lycence purchased than or before, also Chyldren were crystenyd e thoroughe 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 from Spelman’s Gloss. in loco. ‘Quin et dictionibus (an) adjungitur, siquidem vel majoris notationis gratia, vel ad singulare aliquid, vel unicum demonstrandum.’ Hence an elyd 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 publishing a discovery made by accident cannot justly subject me to the imputation of vanity, yet I cannot help thinking it rather a lucky hit to have stumbled upon a passage that leads to the certain investigation of that which has perplexed the most eminent commentators on the text of Shakespeare. The antiquary is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynsen, 1516, because 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 some of the language is much modernized. —If I mistake not, our poet has been very conversant in this Chronicle—It is an old Gothic pile out of the ruins of which he seems to have picked many of his foundation-stones.”

Newcastle upon Tyne. J. B.

[Nichols]: “* * * Another correspondent has sent a similar illustration of this passage, which shall appear in our next.” </p. 124>

762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] J. B. [Brand] (St. James’s Chronicle, no. 2355 [April 11-13, 1776], p. [2]): Brand says that though Theobald came closest to explaining the word, Johnson was not convinced. Brand suggests that “Fabian’s Chronicle, printed by Pynsen, 1516, seems to remove any Possibility of Doubt concerning the true Signification of the Words unhouseld and Unaneld. The Historian, speaking of Pope Innocent’s having laid the whole Kingdom of England under an Interdict, has these Words: ‘Of the Maner of this Enterdiccion of this Lande have I seen dyverse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that the Lande was enterdyted thorowly and the Chirchis and Housys of Relygyon closyd, that no where was used Masse, nor dyvyne Servyce, by whiche reason none of the VII Sacramentis all this terme shoulde be mynystred or occupyed, nor Childe crystened nor Man confessed nor marryed: but it was not so strayght. For there were dyverse placys in Englond, whyche were occupyed with dyvyne Servyce all that season by Lycence purchased than or before, also Children were christenyd thorough all 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. [Latin] Hence aneled should seem to signify oiled or annoited by Way of Eminence, i.e. having received extreme Unction. For the Confirmation of the Sense given here 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 publishing a Discovery made by Accident cannot justly subject me to the Imputation of Vanity, yet I cannot help thinking it rather a lucky Hit to have stumbled upon a Passage that leads to the certain Investigation of that which has perplexed the most eminent Commentators . . .” Brand urges the reader to avoid any ed. of Fabyan except 1516 because the 1559 ed. is modernized and will not help.

762 vnanueld] [Ashby] (1776, pp. 157-8): <p. 157>: “About twelve months ago I communicated to the public, by your means, my thoughts on that passage in Hamlet, ‘Unhousel’d, unanointed, unaneled;’ in which ‘unanointed’ seemed to me a gloss or explanation of ‘unaneled,’ and therefore could hardly be allowed to stand, and accordingly I proposed substituting ‘unappointed,’ not fitted at all points by prayers, confession, and absolution. I ventured to suppose that ‘unaneled’ was right, as it came near the original word elaioy; but did not then know, that it was the reading in all the old editions. See Supplement to Mr. Stevens’ [sic] edition. Nor should I have troubled you again on the same subject, had I not said there, that I remembered to have read much the same words employed in recording the exit of some of our sovereigns: —I should have said, noblemen.

“The passage that I had in my mind occurs in a magnificent folio, containing an account of the several families that have possessed Drayton, &c. in Northamptonshire, now the estate of Lord George Germaine, by [Robert] Halstead. [†] As the book is extremely scarce ‡, I shall transcribe a curious passage from it.

“P. 218. Deposition of Thomas Merbury, Esq; about the Earl of Mordaunt’s death. ‘Which will the said Mordaunte (a serjent at law) then red to the seid Erle, when he was anoyled, and in extreme peynes of deth, soe that the seid Erle neither herde, nor understode, what the said Mordaunt red.’

“I suppose the will was redde whilst he was in anoyling, and in extreme, &c. so that he could not attend. This happened 24 March 1498.

“P. 221. Deposition of Thomas Cade, Clarke, Parson of Buckworth, ‘The seid Erle prayed and required this deponent that he would housel him—and he answer’d, My Lord, I have made ev’ry thing in full redyness to go to mass, if ye be so pleased, and, when mass is done, to housel you. May, seid the same Erle, I pray you let me not tarry so long. He then confesses him, absolves him, says mass in the chamber, and gives him the sacrament. Afterwards went and attended on high mass perform’d by the Earls chaplain in the chapel. Was call’d in an hurry to my Lord by a servant, found my Lord all alone, lighted a fise (pese 284-perh. piece) of wax that was hallowed, and said these words following. In manus tuas, Domine, &c. and in the same moment the seid Erle departed </p.157> <p. 158> to God out of this present lyfe: and thus this Deponent left the deed body of the seid Erle, whose soul God absolve.’

“p. 222. Deposition ‘The seid Erle was howsell’d by the hands of the said Sir Thomas Cade.’

“It is remarkable that the priest says nothing of extreme unction, or will read at that time, and other witnesse present; and though he says he found and left my Lord all alone, yet a servant swears he staid with him to his death. This servant might be the person that called the priest; and might come in with him, and stay unnoticed.

“In [John] Leland’s Collect &c, 4.309 last edition, the seid corps (of H. VII.) assolled, saying this collect, Absolvimus, &c.

“We have therefore here at least two words that may stand instead of ‘unanointed;’ viz. unabsolved; unassoiled; the first, I think, rather too profane, and the other in sound too like what ‘unaneled’ means: I should, therefore, still prefer ‘unappointed,’ if a good authority for the use of it could be produced. [†]; I mean, in the sense of properly fitted out for a jurney to the other world. In [William] Lambard’s Topographical Dictionary, we have, p. 227m Ryd princely appointed. And as to ‘unaneled’ for unanoiled, it is remarkable that absolve is written asoll, assoil, and asseiled. Leland’s Itin. 1745, iv. 264, &c. and Lambard’s Top. Dict. p. 384.”

<n[†]>Gough (apud Nichols, Illus. 7:397): “This name was fictitious, the work really compiled by Henry Earl of Peterborough, and his chaplain, the Rev, Mr. Rans, Rector of Turvey, in Bedfordshire. The impression was limited to twenty-four copies.—Gough.” </n[†]>

<n‡> [Ashby] (46 [March 1776]: “It is sometimes said, that only five copies of it were taken off; which cannot be true; as there are two copies at Drayton, one in the D. of Devonshire’s possession, one in the Harleian Library, and one not long ago in a circulating-library in London, and one among Bp Moore’s books in the Royal Library, Cambridge, marked R.i.4. and most probably more that I have not heard of.” </n‡>

<n†> [Nichols]: “In the folio edition in the Editor’s possession, the line is printed thus: ‘Unhouzzled, disappointed, u[n]anneld.” </n†> </p. 158>

762 Anon. [Juvenis] (1776, pp. 266-7). <p.267> “I have been for some years a reader of your useful Magazine, and have been very agreeably entertained, as well as instructed, by the productions of your many learned correspondents; but I must say that I have not received the satisfaction I could wish, from any of the different opinions sent you, upon the true reading of that well known line of Shakespeare, ‘Unhouseld. unannointed, unanneald’ My reading (I confess) has not been very extensive, but I have been told that Shakespeare’s plays were not left in writing by himself, but collected after his death from detached pieces, and some even from the memories of the performers. I think, therefore, that every alteration in the commonly received readings should have the essential requisite of agreeing nearly in sound.

“The emendation suggested by your very learned and respectable correspondent in your last Magazine are in my opinion deficient in this material point; neither do I think “disappointed” or “unappointed” sufficiently expressive of the idea the author intended to convey.

“I have been told by many ancient persons, who have received the tradition from their forefathers, that when popery was the established religion in England, the custom of preparing dying Christians (especially those of some rank) for their departure out of this world was this: When the sick person was apprehended to be in danger, he was houseld by the priest, that is, he received the Holy Sacrament; if he afterwards grew so ill as to leave no hopes of his recovery, he then received the extreme unction, that is, was annointed with oil in the name of the Lord. This was done immediately before his departure; and the moment he expired the great bell of the parish tolled a ‘knell,’ which was to give notice to all good Christians to pray for the soul of the person dead. On this last ceremony, I imagine, great stress was laid, as it was the act of the whole congregation of the faithful, whereas the two </p.266> <p.267> first were the act of the priest only. As a proof of the merit supposed to be derived from it to the soul of the deceased, it still continues a custom in almost every village in the West, being in some places called the knell, in others the passing-bell.

“Well, therefore, might the ghost of Hamlet’s father lament, that he was sent out of the world without any previous notice, and perhaps his body not found till some time after his death, that he died ‘Unhouseld, unannointed, and unknell’d.’

“I leave this conjecture to the candid judgment of your learned readers, and shall think myself particularly happy if it is found to throw any light on that, hitherto, mysterious passage. Juvenis." </p. 267>

Ed. note: Juvenis wrote a poem mentioning Sh. in Gent. Mag. 44 (Dec. 1774) : 536, where he is identified as an Oxford Scholar,

762 Anon. [

Juvenis seems to have repeated his note in SJC or vice versa: juvenis] (St. James’s Chronicle no 2393 [July 9-11, 1776]: [4]): I have not received the Satisfaction I could wish, from any of the different Opinions sent you, upon the true Reading of that well-known Line of Shakespere, ‘Unhouseld, unanointed, unanneald.’ My reading ( I confess) has not been very extensive, but I have been told that Shakespeare’s Plays were not left in Writing by himself, but collected after his Death from detached pieces, and some even from the Memories of the Performers. I think, there, that every Alteration in the commonly received Readings should have the essential Requisite of agreeing nearly in Sound.

“The Emendations suggested b a learned Correspondent in one of your late Papers, are, in my Opinion, deficient in this material Point; neither do I think ‘disappointed’ or ‘unappointed’ sufficiently expressive of the Idea the Author intended to convey.

“I have been told my many ancient Persons, who have receive the Tradiion from their Forefathers, that when Popery was the established Religion in England, the Custom of preparing dying Christians (especially those of some Rank) for their Departure out of this World was this: When the sick Person was apprehended to be in Danger, he was houseld by the Priest, that is, he received the Holy Sacrament; if he afterwards grew so ill as to leave no Hopes of his Recovery, he then received the Extreme Unction, that is, wsa anointed with Oil in the Name of the Lord. This was done immediatly before his Departure; and the Moment he expired, the great Bell of the Parish tolled a “Knell,” which was to give Notice to all good Christians to pray for the Soul of the Person dead. On this last Ceremony, I imagine, great Stress was laid, as it was the Act of the whole Congregation of the Faithful, whereas the two first were the Acts of the Priest only. As a Proof of the Merit supposed to be derived from it to the Soul of the deceased, it still continues a Custom in almost every Village in the West, being in sme Places called the Knell, in others the Passing-Bell.

“Well, therefore, might the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father lament, that he was sent out of the World without any previous Notice, and perhaps his Body not found till some Time after his Death, that he died ‘Unhouselld, unanointed, and unk nell’d.’

“I leave this Conjecture to the Judgment of your Readers, and shall think myself particularly happy if it it found to throw any Light on tht, hitherto, mysterious Passage.

Your’s, &c. Juvenis.”

762 Steevens (ed. 1778): “Again, in Daniel’s Civil Wars, &c. B.2. ‘Uncourted, unrespected, unobey’d.’ Again, in Spenser’s Faery Queen, B.2. C.10. ‘Unpeopled, unmanur’d, unprov’d, unprais’d.’ [Then Tollet without attribution on Textus Roffensis]

J. B. (apud ed. 1778): quotes F4 “Unhouzzled, disappointed, unaneld.” and then comments “The word unaneld has perplexed all the comentators: Pope explains it ‘having no knell rung.’—Hanmer supposes it to signify unprepared, because to anneal metals is to prepare them for manufacture. Theobald, indeed, guessed as the true meaning, but his explication has been invalidated by the learned Dr. Johnson, who, after having given the notes of his predecessors, observes, on his own authority, ‘that it is a difficult passage, and that he had not by his enquiry been able to satisfy himself.’ 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 unanel’d. The historian, speaking of Pope Innocent’s having laid the whole the whole kingdom of England under an interdict, has these words: ‘Of the maner of this interdiction of this lande have I seen dyverse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that the lande was enterdyted thorowly and the churchis and housys of relygyon closyd, that no where was used masse, nor dyvyne servyce, by whiche reason none of the VII sacraments all this terme should be mynystred or occupyed, nor chyld crystened, nor man confessed nor marryed; but is was not so strayght. For there were dyverse placys in Englond, whiche were occupyed with dyvyne servyce all that season by lycence purchased than or before, also chyldren were crystenyd e thoroughe 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 from 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 oilea 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 publishing a discovery made by accident cannot justly subject me to the imputation of vanity, yet I cannot help thinking it rather a lucky hit to have stumbled upon a passage that leads to the certain investigation of that which has perplexed the most eminent commentators on the text of Shakespeare. The antiquary is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynson, 1516, because 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 some of the language is much modernized. —If I mistake not, our poet has been very conversant in this Chronicle—It is an old Gothic pile out of the ruins of which he seems to have picked many of his foundation-stones.”

Newcastle upon Tyne. J. B.

“This note is taken from the St. James’s Chronicle.” Steevens.

Ed. note: SJC 1771 not available.

762 Ritson (1783, pp. 205-6) considers 762 descriptive of “aggravated circumstances,” forcing Hamlet beyond the “blood for blood” that Johnson believes should content him. See n. 2350.

762 Vnhuzled ] Ayscough (ed. 1784) “i.e. without the sacrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the sacrament, housel.”

762 disappointed ] Ayscough (ed. 1784) is “the same as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared.

762 vnanueld] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “ i.e. unanointed, not having the extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Heron (1785, p. 312): “The word unhouseld in this play may be illustrated from this passage of Chaloner’s Translation of the Praise of Folie, London, 1549. sig. C. pag. versa. ‘Likewise in howsell, and receiving of the scarament,’ &c.”

762 Steevens (ed. 1785, identifies “J.B. as Brand.

762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] Anon. [Green, who is Nichols, according to Kuist] (Gent. Mag. 1786, p. 918): “To the illustration of a passage in Hamlet, that is quoted from Fabian’s Chronicle, Gent. Mag. [46 [1776]:124) may be added, ‘Procession, Bishoppinge, annelinge, purgatorie,” &c. Bale’s Image of both Churches, 2d Part, signature r.11.b. Imprynted at London by Richard Jugge, 1545; and ‘No man may be oyled or aneiled, as they call it.’ Tyndall’s Works (fol. by John Dave, 1572,) p. 157. — The writer of the illustration I have referred to desires the antiquary to consult the edition of Fabian printed by Pynson 1516, because there are others; and he remembers to have seen one in the Bodleian Library, with a Continuation to the end of Queen Mary, London, 1559, in which the language is much modernized. I have the edition he refers to, (imprinted at London by Jhon [sic] Kingston 1559, mense Aprilis,) and the spelling is, as he observes, modernized. The houselyd and anelyd of Pynson’s edition are, in this, houseled and annealed. (Vol. II.p.32).”

762 Vnhuzled ] Henley (1787, p. 42): re Unhousel’d,] <p.42> “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 were both houseled, with one host devided between them.’ ” </p.42>

762 disappointed ] Henley (1787, p. 42): re <p.42>“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.’ ” </p.43>

Ed. note: If appointed in Stowe means “picked out for,” then Henley’s analogue, though he does not say so, suggests that disappointed means “picked out wrongly for death.” </p. 42>

762 vnanueld] Henley (1787, p. 42-3) re <p.42> “unaneal’d ; Sir Thomas Moore:—‘the byshop sendeth oyle to the curates, because they should </p.42> <p.43> therewith annoynt the sicke in the sacrament of anoyling.’ —And again,—‘The extreme unccion or aneyling—.’ Henley.” </p. 43>

762 Vnhuzled ] Malone (ed. 1790): “Housel is the old word for the holy eucharist. To howsel, says Bullokar in his Expositor, 8vo, 1616, is ‘to minister sacraments to a sick man in danger of death.’ Unhousel’d therefore is, without having received the sacrament in the hour of death. So, in [Henry Chettle’s] Hoffman’s Tragedy, 1631: ‘None sung thy requiem, no friend clos’d thine eyes Nor lay’d the hallow’d earth upon thy lips: Thou were not housel’d.’

762 Vnhuzled , vnanueld] Malone (ed. 1790): “Again, in Holinshed’s Chronicle: ‘Also children were christened, and men houseled and anoyled, thorough all the land, except such as were in the bill of excommunication by name expressed.’ Malone.”

762 disappointed ] Malone (ed. 1790): “So, in Holinshed’s Chronicle: ‘He had not past a fifteen lances, as they termed them in those days, that is, to wit, men of arms, furnished and appointed.’

“Mr. Upton is of opinion, that the particular preparation of which the Ghost laments the want, was confession and absolution. Appointment, he adds, is again used in Measure for Measure, in the same sense as here: ‘Therefore your best appointment make with speed.’

“Isabella is the speaker, and her brother, who was condemned to die, is the person addressed. Malone.”

762 vnanueld] Malone (ed. 1790): “Without extreme unction. So, in Sir Thomas More’s Works, p. 345: ‘The extreme unction or anelynge, and confirmation, he sayd, be no sacraments of the church.’ See also the quotation from Holinshed in n. 8 [note on housel’d], where the word is spelt anoyled. Malone.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Rann (ed. 1791-): “Without the participation of the sacrament, or any other requisite preparation, and without the benefit of extreme unction—unanoil’d.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Steevens (ed. 1793):: “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.

762 Boaden (ms. notes, Q5 sig.[C4v]): “I should read it alliteratively, because I think Milton imitated the line before us in the Paradise Lost. ‘Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev’d.’”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Thyer (apud Todd, 1801, 2:103) re P.L. 2.185, “Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev’d”: “This way of introducing several adjectives beginning with the same letter, without any conjunction, is very frequent among the Greek tradegians, whom Milton, I fancy, imitated. What strength and beauty it adds, need not to be mentioned. Thyer.”

Todd adds, “It was a common practice among our own poets,” and he lists F. Q. 7.7.46; and Fairfax, Tasso, 2.16. He also says that “Milton was certainly fond of this practice.” And he lists and quotesP.L. 3.231 and 5.899; P. R. 3.429. “And even in his prose, vol. i. p. 255. ed. 1698. ‘But he, that will mould a modern bishop into a primitive, must yield him to be elected by the popular voice, undiocest, unrevenned, unlorded.’ This practice appears to me to be ridiculed in Gayton’s Notes on Don Quixote, 1654, p. 230. ‘Ungoverned, uncardinall’d, unlorded, Outed of all his hopes, but not unworded.’ Todd.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld]

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Mason (1807, pp. 600-1): <p. 601> “Whether we read disappointed or unappointed, is of little consequence. as the sense of both these words is the same; but though I am not in general an advocate for alliteration, I think it would have a good effect in this passage, and should wish to read, ‘Unhousel’d, unappointed, unannealed,’ unless we read unanointed instead of unappointed, which I should prefer.

“The authorities cited by the editors are, I think, sufficient to prove, that unanneyled might possibly means unanointed, if that were the word used in the text; but that is not the case, and the original reading, unaneled, </p. 600> <p.601 > will bear an interpretation more strong and poetical, than that which they contend for.

“To annele, or anneal, as it is now spelt, is a term used by the blowers of glass.—If a glass, when blown, were to be immediately exposed to the open air, it would shiver into pieces; to avoid this, it is conveyed into what is called an annealing furnace, of a moderate degree of hear, in order to inure it by degrees to the cold—to that practice the Ghost may possibly allude, and mean to complain, that he was sent to his account, without any preparation that might enable him to sustain the dreadful change he was about to undergo. If this idea of mine be just, which I offer with much diffidence, we may read, ‘Unhousel’d, unanointed, unannealed.’ ” </p. 601>

762 Weston (1808, sig. A8r): analogue in Antigone

Unhousel’d, disappointed, unanel’d

“amoiron, disappointed, or unprovided, unportioned, unprepared with sacrifices for the infernal Gods. Akteriston, unaneled, without the holy oil or the honours of burial. Anosion nekyn, unhouseled, without the sacrament or holy rites.” </sig. [A8r]>

762 Anon. (1810, p. 22): “i.e. without receiving the obligatory rites of the church, the first the sacrament of the host, secondly, extreme unction, thirdly confession and absolution, without which the two former were incompleat, the last was confirmed by the priest, and was the immediate passport to heaven, and the last office to confirm the sacrament of the eucharist— N. B. Absolution was never pronounced to one that was not sound in mind.”

762 Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Unhousel’d, disappointed, unanel’d] Without the sacrament administered; and unprepared, unfitted; and without extreme unction received. ‘To housel, to minister the communion </p.35> <p.36> to one that lieth on his deathbed.’ Bullokar and Cockeram. Todd’s Dict. ‘Howselyn. Communico.’ Promptuar. parvulor.’ [sic. missing a quotation mark. These words are italicized in CALD2 but still missing the quotation mark] ‘Communico, to make comune or howsell.’ Ortus Vocabulor. 4to. 1514. ‘In howsell and receiving the sacrament, Synaxi.*’ Sir Tho. Chaloner’s Erasmus’s Praise of Folie. 4to. 1549. p. 73, b. ‘The consecracyon that was whan he dyd consecrate and make (of breed and wyne) his own holy body and sacred blode, and therwith dyd commune and howsell his apostles.’ Rich Whitforde’s werke for householders. 4to. 1530. Signat. G. II. ‘He is departed without shryfte and housyll. Sine sacrorum præsidio aut viatico.’ Vulgaria Hormanni. 4to. 1530. Signat. Z v, b. ‘Shrive thee only for the doute of Jesu Crist and the hele of thy soule—and certes once a yere at lest way it is lawful to be houseled ; for sothely ones a yere all thinges in the erthe renovelen.’ Persone’s Tale, Tyrwh. Chau. 8vo. 1775. III. 268.”

“In the sense of not equipped or fitted out, as applied to any expedition or enterprise, disappointed in early times was in use, as, in the opposite sense, appoint now is: and here Mr. Steevens ‘Therfore your best appointment make with speed.’ [MM 3.1.? (1268)]. We have it much in the sense of the text in Arth. Golding’s lul. Solinus’s Polyhist. ‘Whatsoever is hurtful is disappointed by the touching heereof (ebonye). Quicquid maleficum fuerit, tactu ejus averti.” 4to. 1587. Signat. E.e, 11, b ‘I am dyspoynted of an hors. Defraudor equo.’ Vulgaria Hormanni. Signat. C.11.

“As to the last term, unaneled, we find in Giles Fletcher’s Russe Commonwealth, 12mo. 1591. fo. 98. “They (the Russe church) hold three sacraments of baptisme, the Lord’s supper. and the last annoiling or unction.” [CALD then quotes Brand, Steevens on Textus Roffensis Tyrwhitt on Morte d’Arthur.]

<p. 36> <n> “* Synaxis, synagv, a gathering together, the holy communion or sacrament. </n> </p. 36>

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

Ed. note: Boswell includes Steevens’s reaction against mal. v1821 is Malone’s posthumous revision, completed and brought to press by James Boswell, the younger, but mostly, in fact, edited by Boswell—at least for Ham.

762 Vnhuzled] Nares (1822): “To Housel. To administer the sacrament to any one; hu<g>?</g>lian. Saxon. ‘The king and queen descended, and before the high aulter they were both houseled, with one host divided between them.’ Holinshed, vol. ii. Ppp 7.

“‘Thomas the apostle’s hand, that was in Christ’s side, would never go into his tomb, but always lay without; which hand had such vertue in it, that if the priest when he goes to mass, put a branch of a vine into his hand, the branch putteth forth grapes, and by that time that the gospel be said, the grapes been ripe, and he takes the grapes and wringeth them into the chalice, and with that wine houselleth the people.’ Legend, quoted by Patr. on Rom. Dev. p. 17.

“‘Particularly, to give it as the viaticum to dying persons: ‘Also children were christened and men houseled and annoyled through all the land.’ Holinshed, vol. ii. N 6.

“‘Thou wert not houseled, neither did the bells ring Blessed peales, nor towle thy funerall knell.’ Hoffman, a Tragedy. sign. I.2.

“In profane allusion, to prepare for any journey, as the giving of the viaticum implied preparing men for their final journey: ‘—May zealous smiths So housel all our hackneys, that they may feel Compunction in their feet, and tire at Highgate.’ B. & Fl. Wit without Money, iii. 1. p. 305.

“Mr. Seward’s note on this passage will show how reluctantly he admitted this very improper allusion, which, however was certainly, I fear, intended by the author.”

Also, “Housel. The eucharist, or sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; from hu<g>?</g>el, or hu<g>?</g>l, Saxon, which may have been deduced from hostiola, Latin. ‘And there fore we wryteth unto the Corynthies, that of the holy howsyll, the sacrament of the awter, he had shewed them the manner and manner by mouth.’ Sir Thomas More’s Works, p. 160.

“‘Now will we open unto you, through God’s grace, of the body housell, which ye shoulde now goe unto.’ Saxon Homily, publ. by Archb. Parker.

“Also, the act of taking the sacrament, perhaps as the viaticum: ‘Likewise in howsell, and receiving the sacrament. Chaloner’s Moriæ Encom. T i b.”

762 disappointed] Nares (1822): “that is, unappointed, not appointed or prepared. See Appointed. This is the uniform readinh of the old copies in the famous line of Hamlet. [quotes 762].”

762 vnanueld] Nares (1822): “Unaneled. Unanointed, i.e. without receiving the supposed sacrament of extreme unction; from the Saxon ele, which means oil. There was much doubt about the following passage [762], till this sense was ascertained. See Johnson. But, that there is no real case for doubt, see the authorities quoted under Anele.”

“Anele, v. To anoint, or give extreme unction; from ele, Saxon, for oil. ‘So when he was houseled and aneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have. Mort d’Arthur, p. iii. c. 175 [Cited eneled by Capel, School of Sh. p. 176].

“‘The extreme unction or anelynge, and confirmacion he sayed be no sacraments of the church.’ Sir Thos. More’s Works, p. 345.

“‘Also, aneyling is without promise.’ Ib. 379.

“To annoyle was also used: ‘The byshop sendeth it to the curates, because they should therwith annoynt the sick, in the sacrament of anoyling. Sir Thos. More’s Works, p. 431

“‘Also children were christen’d, and men houseld and annoyled thorough all the land.’ Holinsh. vol. ii. n. 6.”

Ed. note: This ref. to children does not appeare in Holinshed 1577 or 1588.

762 Vnhuzled] Singer (ed. 1826): “And in Speculum Vitæ, Ms. it is a sin—‘To receive not once in the yeare Howsel and schrifte with conscience clere.’”

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld] Singer (ed. 1826): “Thus in Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey, edit. 1824, p. 324: —‘Then we began to put him in mind of Christ’s passion; and sent for the abbot of the place to anneal him.’ ‘The fyfth sacrament is anoynting of seke men, the whiche oyle is halowed of the bysshop, and mynystred by preestes that ben of lawfull age, in grete peryll of dethe: in lyghtnes and in abatynge of theyr sikenes, yf God wyll that they lyve; and in forgyveynge of their venyal synnes and releasynge of theyr payne, if they shal deye.’ —The Festyval, fol. 171.”

762 Caldecott (ed. 1832, pp. 41-3 n. 104): ‘Unhousel’d, disappointed, unanel’d] i.e. ‘Without the sacrament administered; and unprepared, unfitted; and without </p. 41> <p. 42> extreme unction received. ‘To housel, to minister the communion to one that lieth on his deathbed.’ Bullokar and Cockeram. Todd’s Dict. ‘Howselyn. Communico.’ Promptuar. parvulor.’ ‘Communico, to make comune or howsell.’ Ortus Vocabulor. 4to. 1514. ‘In howsell and receiving the sacrament, Synaxi.*’ [“*Synaxis, synagv, a gathering together, the holy communion or sacrament.] Sir Tho. Chaloner’s Erasmus’s Praise of Folie. 4to. 1549. p. 73, b. ‘The consecracyon that was whan he dyd consecrate and make (of breed and wyne) his own holy body and sacred blode, and therwith dyd commune and howsell his apostles.’ Rich Whitforde’s werke for householders. 4to. 1530. Signat. G. II. ‘He is departed without shryfte and housyll. Sine sacrorum præsidio aut viatico.’ Vulgaria Hormanni. 4to. 1530. Signat. Z v. b. ‘Shrive thee only for the † doute of Jesu Crist and the hele of thy soule—and certes once a yere at lest way it is lawful to be houseled; for sothely ones a yere all thinges in the erthe renovelen.’ Persone’s Tale, Tyrwh. Chau. 8vo. 1775. III. 268. and Gloss.”

“In the sense of not equipped or fitted out, as applied to any expedition or enterprise, disappointed in early times was in use, as, in the opposite sense, appoint now is: and here Mr. Steevens instances ‘Therefore your best appointment make with speed.’ [MM 3.1.59 (1268)]. We have it much in the sense of the text in Arth. Golding’s lul. Solinus’s Polyhist. ‘Whatsoever is hurtful is disappointed by the touching heereof (ebonye). Quicquid maleficum fuerit, tactu ejus averti.” 4to. 1587. Signat. E.e. 11, b “I am dyspoynted of an hors. Defraudor equo.’ Vulgaria Hormanni. Signat. C.11.

“In the advertisement to his notes Mr. Steph. Weston quotes Sophocles: [and cald quotes Weston pretty much as above, transposing, however, the order of the translations, with disappointed first, then unhousel’d and then unaneled.] He does not have Weston’s 4th term. cald then continues:

“As to the last term, unaneled, we find in Giles Fletcher’s Russe Commonwealth, 12mo. 1591. fo. 98. “They (the Russe church) hold three sacraments of baptisme, the Lord’s supper. and the last annoiling or unction.” [cald then quotes Brand, </p, 42> <p. 43> Steevens on Textus Roffensis Tyrwhitt on Morte d’Arthur.] </p.43>

<p. 42><n> “† i.e. fear: ‘doute Fr.’ Tyrwh. Chaucer III.268. ad Gloss.” </n> </p. 42>

762 Vnhuzled] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Without having received the sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Unappointed, unprepared.”

762 vnanueld] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Knight (ed. [1839]): “These words describe the last offices which were performed to the dying. To housel, is to ‘minister the communion to one who lyeth on his death-bed.’ Disappointed, is, not appointed, not prepared. Unanel’d, is, without the administration of extreme unction, which was called anoiling.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Collier (ed. 1843): ‘Unhousel’d’ is without having received the sacrament: ‘disappointed’ is unappointed or unprepared; and ‘unanel’d’ is unoiled, without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Verplanck (ed. 1844): “without having received the communion, (Saxon, husel, the eucharist;)

762 disappointed] Verplanck (ed. 1844): “un-appointed, not prepared;

762 vnanueld] Verplanck (ed. 1844): “without extreme unction, which was called ‘anoiling.’”

762 disappointed] (1845, 2: 224-5): <p. 224> “So general an idea interposed between two special ideas can hardly have been intended. . . . Perhaps ‘unassoiled’ may have been the word, which is equivalent to ‘unabsolved.’” However, he points out that contemporary references to the first and third terms do not appear with assoiling. </p. 224> <p. 225>. . . .” </p. 225>

Lord Stourton appeared as a ghost to the family sometime between 1588-1594.

762 disappointed] Singer [B.J.S.] (1853, p. 8): <p. 8 >“Boucher, in his Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words (art. Anyeal), has a note on this passage which seems to me to give so much better an idea of the word disappointed than any I have met with, that I am induced to send it you as a Note:— ‘The last two words [disappointed and aneled] have occasioned considerable difficulty to the critics. The old copies, it is said, concur in giving disappointed, which Dr. Johnson is willing to understand as meaning unprepared; a sense that might very well suit the context, but will not be easily confirmed by any other instance of the use of the word disappointed. Dissatisfied, therefore, with this interpretation, some have read unannointed, and some unappointed. Not approving of either of these words, as connected with unaneald, Pope, no timid corrector of texts, reads unaneld, which he supposes to signify unknelled, or the having no bell rung. To these emendations and interpretations Mr. Theobald, whose merit as a commentator on Shakspeare Mr. Pope, with all his wit and all his poetry, could not bring into dispute, urged many strong objections. Skinner rightly explains anealed as meaning unctus; from the Teutonic preposition an, and ole, oil. As correction of the second word is admitted by all the commentators to be necessary, it is suggested that a clear and consistent meaning, consonant with Shakspeare’s manner, will be given to the passage, if, instead of disappointed, unassoiled, which signifies ‘without absolution,’ be substituted.

“‘The line—‘unhousell’d, unassoil’d, unaneal’d,’ will then signify ‘without receiving the sacrament, without confession and absolution: and without extreme unction.’

“‘That unassoiled was no less proper, will appear from due attention to the word assoile, which of course is derived from absolve; and the transition from absolve into assoyle is demonstrated in the following passage from Piers Plowman, Vision, p. 3: ‘There preached a pardoner, as he a priest were, Brought forth a bul, with many a bishop’s seales, And saide, that himself might absoyle hem alle, Of falshode, of fasting, and of vowes broken.’ As a further confirmation of the propriety of substituting a word signifying absolution, which pre-supposes confession, the following sentence from Prince Arthur may be adduced: ‘She was confessed and houselled, and then she died,’ part ii. p. 108.

“‘It must be allowed that no instance can be given of the word unassoiled: but neither does any other instance occur to me of the word unhouseled except the line in Hamlet.’ B.J.S.” </p. 8>

762 Vnhuzled] Delius (ed. 1854): “to housel = mit dem Sacrament versehen; [provided with the Sacrament]

762 disappointed] Delius (ed. 1854): “disappointed ist = ohne Ausrüstung; das Gegentheil von appointed, = ausgerüstet; [unequipped; the opposite of appointed meaning equipped]

762 vnanueld] Delius (ed. 1854): to anele, (auch anoil geschrieben) mit der letzten Oelung versehen.” [to anele, (also written anoil) is to provide with extreme unction.]

762 Staunton (ed. 1860): “ ‘Unhousel’d” signifies without having received the eucharist; ‘disappointed’ = unappointed, means unprepared; and ‘unanel’d’ is without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] White (ed. 1861): “Unhouselled is without having received the consecrated wafer; disappointed, unappointed, unprepared; unanelled, without extreme unction or anointing with consecrated oil.”

762 Vnhuzled] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864, Glossary): Unhousel’d “without receiving the sacrament.”

762 vnanueld] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864, Glossary): unanel’d “without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Keightly (ed. 1864, Glossary): “Unhouselled, without having the Holy Communion.”

762 disappointed] Keightly (ed. 1864, Glossary): “unappointed, unprepared.”

762 vnanueld] Keightly (ed. 1864, Glossary): “Unaneled, without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary): “Unhouseled. Not having received the sacrament of the Eucharist as a Viaticum.”

762 disappointed] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary): “Unappointed, not prepared.”

762 vnanueld] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary): “Unaneled. Not having received the sacrament of extreme unction. Ele is the Saxon for oil.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Halliwell [later Halliwell-Phillipps] (ed. 1865), after quoting Singer’s full note, adds: “Is any man sick among you? let him bring the Priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anoiling him with oile in the name of our Lord.—James, v.14. Rhemish translation.

“Therefore it is a third untruth which beginneth the second section that the church of God hath always used this unction upon this warrant of the Apostle, whereas the Church hath not always as much as used it, much less hath it used it for a Sacrament: but of the contrary part the Valentine Hereticks have used this aneeling as you doe, that is to say, (having received no grace or gift of healing no more than you) did notwithstanding annoynt those with oyle which were ready to dye.--Annot. on the Rhem Transl. by Cartwright, p. 661.”

762 Dyce (ed. 1866): “ . . . for ‘disappointed’ Pope substituted ‘unanointed,’ which was adopted by Hanmer and Capell, none of them being aware that they were introducing a strange pleonasm since ‘unanel’d,’ which they did not understand, means unanointed (and Mr. Francis Prendergast, though acquainted with the meaning of ‘unanel’d,’ has lately defended Pope’s emendation “unannointed’ in two ingenious letters addressed to the Editor of the Dublin Evening Mail). —Theobald altered ‘disappointed’ to ‘unappointed’ (and there is no doubt that in a passage of The Comedy of Errors the folio has the stark error ‘distain’d’ for ‘unstain’d: see note 37 on that play, vol. ii. p. 59).

“Let us consider the three words of the line one by one:

762 Vnhuzled] Dyce (ed. 1866): “Unhousell’d” is without having received the housel, the Eucharist, or Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

762 disappointed] Dyce (ed. 1866): “Disappointed,” if the right reading, must be equivalent to ill-appointed, unappointed,—unprepared.

762 vnanueld] Dyce (ed. 1866): “Unanel’d” is not aneled, aneiled, or anoyld, not oiled, not anointed,—without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘Without having received the sacrament, from the Latin hostiola, which is rendered by Ainsworth, in his Dictionary, ‘a little consecrated host, a housel.”

762 disappointed] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘Unappointed,‘ ‘not prepared;’ ‘spiritually unprovided.’ See [MM 3.1.59 (1265-9), n. 13].”

762 vnanueld] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘Without extreme unction.’”

762 Vnhuzled] Moberly (ed. 1870): “without the sacrament (literally sacrifice)

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueled] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Without supreme unction. The word is probably derived, as Wedgwood points out, from ‘niello’ (nigellum), enamel. Hence it is applied to unction, and thus naturally assumed the spelling ‘enoyle’ or ‘anoyle,’ which we find in other authors.”

rug1 = rug2 Look for Wedgwood to see if any of mob is original. I had Wedgwood at one time but did not look.

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “unprepared, unequipped for the last journey. ‘Appointment’ in the sense of preparation for death is found in [MM 3.1.60 (1268)]: ‘Therefore your best appointment make with speed.’ And ‘appointed’ in the sense of ‘equipped” occurs in [WT 4,4,603 (2468)]: “It shall be so my care To have you royally appointed as if The scene you play were mine.’”

762 vnanueld]

762 Vnhuzled] Moberly (ed. 1873): “Without the sacrament (‘hostia,’ sacrifice).

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

762 Elze (1876, pp. 531, rpt. 1901, pp. 462-3) <p. 462> asserts that though Sh. was not a Catholic, he liked certain “doctrines, institutions, and customs” of the church. Elze quotes Macaulay [Lord Burleigh and His Times] “ ‘In “Hamlet” the Ghost complains of having died without extreme unction, and, in defiance of the </p. 462> <p. 463> article, which condemns the doctrine of purgatory, declares that he is doomed [quotes fast . . . away 696-8].’ These lines, as Macaulay fears, would have called forth a tremendous storm in the theatre at any time during the reign of Charles the Second. They were, he goes on to say, clearly not written by a zealous Protestant. 1 </p. 463>

Note to Flir: Briefe über Shakespeare’s Hamlet, p. 118: in his index, Elze identifies Flir as a Catholic who believes Sh. was Protestant:

<n. 1> <p. 463> “1 Dr. Flir [. . . ] gives a better interpretation of this point than Macaulay. ‘If,’ he says (on p. 116) “Shakespeare’s feeling towards the English Church had been only in the slightest degree unorthodox, he would never have ventured to take any such liberty, much less have himself acted the part of the Ghost.’ According to the popular belief—which in this case coincides with the doctrines of the Romish Church—the Ghost could not have returned either from hell or from heaven, he could only return to earth from purgatory. ‘Shakespeare’s drama,’ says Flir, ‘required a Ghost of this sort from purgatory, and the poet obeyed the demands of his art.’” </p. 463> </n. 1>

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueled]

762 Vnhuzled] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Romaunt of the Rose, 6386: ‘Ere any wight his housel tooke,’ etc. Spenser (F. Q. 1.2.37) has ‘the housling fire’ (sacramental or sacrificial fire).”

Ed. note: Reference should be F. Q. 1.12.37

762 vnanueld] Tanger (1880, p. 125) considers both the Q2 and F1 variant to be in error.

762 Vnhuzled] White (ed. 1883): “without the last sacrament.”

Ed. note: See Macaky, below.

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

762 Vnhuzled]

762 disappointed]

762 vnanueld]

762 Mull (ed. 1885): “Without the communion, not prepared, and not having extreme unction administered.”

762 Mackay (1887): “Unhousel’d, unanointed, unaneled.” The first and last words are not, as some have explained, from the A.S. “Housel was used by Chaucer and the author of “Piers Ploughman.” To housel,supposed to be derived from hostie, the host, was to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist to a dying man; to anele, according to nearly all the etymologists who have commented upon the passage, was to give extreme unction, or anoint with oil. But as Shakespeare did not use unnecessary words, anele must be supposed to have borne a different meaning from anointed, which immediately precedes it. Johnson suggested un-knell’d, that is, having no knell or bell rung at the funeral, but confessed that he was not quite satisfied with the explanation. In Wright’s Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English” several examples of anelying, anoyling, in the supposed sense of anointing with oil, are cited. For unanointed, in order to avoid the repetition of idea in unaneled—supposed that to mean the same—many modern editors have substituted disappointed, which is certainly not an improvement, and weakens an otherwise strong and majestic line. . . .

“It may be worth noting, without insisting on the etymology, that inealta, in Gaelic, means prepared, and that uninealta, unprepared, would exactly suit the force and sense of the beautiful passage.”

Ed. note: Mackay’s comment is shot full of error; we include some of it. Disappointed, which he abhors, is part of the original Q2/F1 line. A scan of the TN and CN will show where else he errs.

762 vnanueld] Lounsbury (1906, p. 92) is surprised that Pope seems to know so little about Catholicism as to misunderstand this word; he says that even Johnson (among others) professed to be unconvinced about Theobald’s explanation. One of Lounsbury’s goals is to show how even good ideas do not get credited to the right person.

762 disappointed] Travers (ed. 1929): “(more suggestive of disorder and dismay than the more symmetrical “unappointed’ would have been) = unequipped (cp. appointment, [2989]) for the other world, unprepared for it by confession (the reckoning of [763]), repentance, absolution, which is implied . . . ”

762 Vnhuzled]] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “without the sacrament of communion.”

762 disappointed] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “unprepared (by confession).”

762 vnanueld] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "not having received the Eucharist (administered by the priest shortly before death)."

762 disappointed] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "unprepared (for death), as by confession and absolution."

762 vnnaneld] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "without extreme unction (A.S. ele, ’oil’)."

762 Rylands (ed. 1947, p. 28) cites this line and 765, among others, as examples of “adventurous experiments within the compass of a line.”

762 Vnhuzled] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary): “not having received the sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary): “unprepared.”

762 vnanueld] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary): “not having received extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled] Farnham (ed. 1957): “without the Sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Farnham (ed. 1957): “unprepared spiritually.”

762 vnanueld] Farnham (ed. 1957): “without extreme unction.”

762 Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld] Harrison (ed. 1957): “unfortified by the last Sacrament, unprepared, without supreme unction. See later note on [2352].”

762 Devlin (1963, p. 50): “What really persuades people that the Ghost is a Catholic ghost is its appalled horror at having to die suddenly without the Last Sacraments.”

762 Vnhuzled] Farnham (ed. 1970): “without the Sacrament”

762 disappointed] Farnham (ed. 1970): “unprepared spiritually”

762 vnanueld] Farnham (ed. 1970): “without extreme unction”

762 Lacan (1977, 11-55, summarized and quoted by de Grazia, 2007, pp. 20-1): <p. 20> “What Hamlet reveals is not the symptoms of repressed desire but rather of inexplicable loss; it is a play about mourning, not guilt: ’I know of no commentator who has ever </p. 20> <p.21>taken the trouble to make this remark....from one end of Hamlet to the other, all anyone talks about it mourning.’ It is no coincidence that Hamlet’s problem is also that of ’modern society.’ The truncated and furtive rites of mourning in the play (the death of King Hamlet without final unction, Polonius’ ’hugger-mugger’ burial [2821], Ophelia’s abbreviated service [3414]) all gesture toward the present abandonment by which loss was once compensated.” </p.21>

Ed. note: See also the Luptons in TLN 250CN. who speak of Lacan and the queen’s failure to mourn.

762 Vnhuzled] Spencer (ed. 1980): “without having received the sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Spencer (ed. 1980): “unprepared (for death, as having had no opportunity for repentance, confession, and absolution).”

762 vnanueld] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(rhyming with ’healed’) without having been given extreme unction.”

762 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “collectively, deprived of the last rites. Unhousel’d, not having received the ’housel’ or eucharist; unanel’d, not having been anointed with holy oil (i.e. without extreme unction); disappointed, not having made proper ’appointment’ (cf. MM 3.1.61) or preparation, and hence referring inclusively to such rites (e.g. confession and absolution) as are not specified by the other two words.”

762 Edwards (ed. 1985): "Without the sacrament, not appointed or prepared for death, without extreme unction."

762 Vnhuzled] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "not having received the housel (i.e. eucharist) – a word not used elsewhere by Shakespeare."

762 disappointed] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "unprepared (for death), not having made confession and received absolution (OED ppl. a. 2) – again a word Shakespeare does not use in this sense elsewhere."

762 vnaneld] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "unanointed, not having benefit of extreme unction. Anele and anoil were in frequent use from the beginning of the 14th centre; but unaneled is yet another Shakespearian coinage. Line [762] as a whole makes one realize how much the strangeness and the impressiveness of the Ghost depends on the unusual language he is given."

762 Vnhuzled] Bevington (ed. 1988): “without having received the Sacrament.”

762 disappointed] Bevington (ed. 1988): “unready (spiritually) for the last journey.”

762 vnanueld] Bevington (ed. 1988): “without having received extreme unction.”

762 disappointed] Duffy (1992, rpt. 2005, p. 322): The dying in the late Middle Ages and early modern period often made their wills when they were on their death-beds [a practice that could leave them ill-prepared]. The regular triple-expression is "schrift, housel, and anneling" (confession, communion, and anointing, Duffy, p. 311).

762 Vnhuzled . . . vnanueld] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “without having received final rites”

762 Abraham (1994, p. 12; from de Grazia, 2007, p. 21) “locates guilt not in the son’s desires but in the father’s crimes.” Though we have heard from Horatio how Old Hamlet won the lands of Old Fortinbras, the victory, says Abraham, was through deceit and poison. Abraham calls this the "phantom effect."

Ed. note: While there is no proof of this view within the play, King Hamlet’s severe purgatorial punishment lends credence to the view that he did something very wrong.

762 Vnhuzled] OED housel 1590 Greenwood: “Your popish and Idolatrous housling the sick with this sacrament.” For unhouseled, it lists MORE 1st (Confut. Tindale, Wks. 377/2. And then Sh.

762 vnanueld] OED lists Sh. as the 1st for unaneled (with lots of alternative spellings, including annealed). Under housel and anel, there are much older references going back to early Middle Ages; the MED also has extensive listings for all the forms, and the spelling for the word for extreme unction and for firing are the same.

762 Walsh (1998, p. 137): “We find editors doing what they can to explain the words of Shakespeare long before adequate English lexicographical resources were available to them. Lewis Theobald could appeal to Skinner’s Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae in explaining Hamlet’s word ’unaneled’ as meaning ’Not being anointed, or, not having the extreme Unction,’ and to Spelman’s Glossary in explaining ’even Christian’ as ’fellow Christian’ [3217].”

762 Greenblatt (2001, p.306 n. 33): “The specificity of the Catholic nature of these last rites is open to debate, since some version of each of them was compatible with Protestantism.”

762 Kilroy (2003, p. 146) identifies these as three Catholic rites: “confession, communion, and extreme unction.

Ed. note: Others do not identify the three sacraments as Kilroy does.

762 Holderness (2005, p.170): “The dying Hamlet does not even consider those ’last things’ that to his dying father had loomed so large, confession, communion, anointing, the ’shrift, housel, annealing’; which in medieval piety prepared for judgement, compensated for the almost inevitably unprepared condition of the sinful soul.”

762 Vnhuzled] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “without having taken the sacrament (’housel’ is an old name for the ’host’ or consecrated element of Christian mass or communion)”

762 disappointed] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “improperly appointed, unprepared”

762 vnanueld] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “not anointed, i.e. without having taken extreme unction —the special sacrament for the dying. (The syllable nel is pronounced like ’kneel’.) Taken together, these three adjectives emphasize that the Ghost has been deprived of the ’last rites’ due to a dying Christian.”