And in the porches of mine ears did pour well as opium, he seems not to mean an actual coldness, but the power it has of benumbing the faculties. Dioscorides ascribes to it the property of producing madness (ϋοσκυαμος μανιώδης). These qualities have been confirmed by several cases related in modern observations. In Wepfer we have a good account of the various effects of this root upon most of the members of a convent in Germany, who eat of it for supper by mistake, mixed with succory;"heat in the throat, giddiness, dimness of sight, and delirium." Cicut. Aquatic. c. xviii. GREY. So, in Drayton's Barons' Wars, p. 51: "The pois'ning henbane, and the mandrake drad." Again, in the Philosopher's 4th Satire of Mars, by Robert Anton, 1616: "The poison'd henbane, whose cold juice doth kill." In Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633, the word is written in a different manner: 66 the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, "The juice of hebon, and Cocytus' breath." STEEvens. Dr. Grey had ingeniously supposed this word to be a metathesis for henebon or henbane; but the best part of his note on the subject has been omitted, which is his reference to Pliny, who says that the oil of henbane dropped into the ears disturbs the brain. Yet it does not appear that henbane was ever called henebon. The line cited by Mr. Steevens from Marlowe's Jew of Malta, shows that the juice of hebon, i. e. ebony, was accounted poisonous; and in the English edition by Batman, of Bartholomæus de Proprietatibus Rerum, so often cited in these observations as a Shakspearian book, the article for the wood ebony is entitled, "Of Ebeno, chap. 52." This comes so near to the text, [particularly that of the quarto,] that it is presumed very little doubt will now remain on the occasion. It is not surprising that the dropping into the ears should occur, because Shakspeare was perfectly well acquainted with the supposed properties of henbane as recorded in Holland's translation of Pliny and elsewhere, and might apply this mode of use to any other poison. Douce. 7 The leperous DISTILMENT;] So, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, vol. ii. p. 142: "which being once possessed, never leaveth the patient till it hath enfeebled his state, like the qualitie of poison distilling through the veins even to the heart." MALONE. Surely, "the leperous distilment" signifies the water distilled from henbane, that subsequently occasioned leprosy. STEEVENS. The natural gates and alleys of the body; Thus was I, sleeping by a brother's hand, Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd": * Quarto, possess. + First folio, bak'd. + First folio, and. § Quarto, unanused; first folio, unnanel'd. 8 at once DESPATCH'D:] Despatch'd, for bereft. WARBURTON. 9 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, &c.] The very words of this part of the speech are taken (as I have been informed by a gentleman of undoubted veracity) from an old Legend of Saints, where a man, who was accidentally drowned, is introduced as making the same complaint. STEEVENS. Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd;] Unhousel'd is 'without having received the sacrament.' Disappointed, as Dr. Johnson observes, "is the same as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared. A man well furnished with things necessary for an enterprise, was said to be well appointed." This explanation of disappointed may be countenanced by a quotation of Mr. Upton's from Measure for Measure: "Therefore your best appointment make with speed." Isabella, as Mr. Malone remarks, is the speaker, and her brother, who was condemned to die, is the person addressed. Unanel'd is without extreme unction.' I shall now subjoin as many notes as are necessary for the support of the first and third of these explanations. I administer the bark only, not supposing any reader will be found who is desirous to swallow the whole tree. In the Textus Roffensis, we meet with two of these words— "The monks offering themselves to perform all priestly functions of houseling, and aveyling." Aveyling is misprinted for aneyling. STEEVENS. See Mort d'Arthur, p. iii. c. 175: "So when he was houseled and aneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have," &c. TYRWHITT. No reckoning made, but sent to my account The subsequent extract from a very scarce and curious copy of Fabian's Chronicle, printed by Pynson, 1516, seems to remove every possibility of doubt concerning the true signification of the words unhousel'd and unanel'd. The historian, speaking of Pope Innocent's having laid the whole kingdom of England under an interdict, has these words: "Of the manner of this interdiccion of this lande have I seen dyverse opynyons, as some ther be that saye that the lande was interdyted thorwly and the churchis and housys of relygyon closyd, that no where was used mase, nor dyvyne servyce, by whiche reason none of the VII sacramentis all this terme should be mynystred or occupyed, nor chyld crystened, nor man confessed nor marryed; but it was not so strayght. For there were dyverse placys in Englond, which were occupyed with dyvyne servyce all that season by lycence purchased than or before, also chyldren were chrystenyd throughe all the lande and men houselyd and anelyd." Fol. 14, Septima Pars Johannis. The Anglo-Saxon noun-substantives husel (the eucharist), and ele (oil), are plainly the roots of these last-quoted compound adjectives. For the meaning of the affix an to the last, I quote Spelman's Gloss. in loco: "Quin et dictionibus (an) adjungitur, siquidem vel majoris notationis gratia, vel ad singulare aliquid, vel unicum demonstrandum." Hence anelyd should seem to signify oiled or anointed by way of eminence, i. e. having received extreme unction. For the confirmation of the sense given here, there is the strongest internal evidence in the passage. The historian is speaking of the VII sacraments, and he expressly names five of them, viz. baptism, marriage, auricular confession, the eucharist, and extreme unction. The antiquary is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynson, 1516, 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 the language is much modernized. BRAND. 2 O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!] It was ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be supposed to interrupt so long a speech. JOHNSON. 3 A couch for luxury and damned incest. Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive [Exit. HAM. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else ? And shall I couple hell ?-O fye !-Hold, hold, my heart; *First folio, Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. 3 a couch for LUXURY-] i. e. for lewdness. So, in K. Lear: "To't luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers." STEEVENS. See Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. II. MALONE. -pale his uneffectual fire ;] i. e. shining without heat. WARBURTON. To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: "Death can pale as well "A cheek of roses, as a cheek less bright." Again, in Urry's Chaucer, p. 368: "The sterre paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the sonne," &c. Uneffectual fire, I believe, rather means, fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 : 66 like a glow-worm, "The which hath fire in darkness, none in light." Adieu, adieu, adieu ! &c.] The folio reads― 66 STEEVENS. Adieu, adieu, Hamlet, remember me." STEEVens. O fye!] These words (which hurt the measure, and from that circumstance, and their almost ludicrous turn, may be suspected as an interpolation,) are found only in the two earliest quartos. "O fye!" however, might have been the marginal reprehension of some scrupulous reader, to whom the MS. had been communicated before it found its way to the press. STEEvens. This line in Mr. Malone's first folio is thus : * And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, 8 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! * Quarto, swiftly. + First folio, yes, yes. First folio, My tables, my tables. "And shall I couple hell? oh fie: hold my heart." The ludicrous words, as Mr. Steevens chooses to term them, are found in a subsequent speech of Hamlet, Act II. Sc. II. near the close: "Fye upon't! foh! about my brains." So also, p. 202: "Fye on't! oh fye! 'tis an unweeded garden." Boswell. Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, WHILE MEMORY HOLDS A SEAT IN THIS DISTRACTED GLOBE.] So, in our poet's 122d Sonnet: “Which shall above that idle rank remain, "Beyond all dates, even to eternity; "Or at the least, so long as brain and heart this distracted globe," i. e. in this head confused with thought. STEEVENS. 8 Yea, from THE TABLE OF MY MEMORY-] This expression is used by Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesie. So, in Golding's Translation of Abraham's Sacrifice, by Beza: "Let not this trew and noble storie part "Out of the mind and tables of your heart." Malone. from the table of my memory I'll wipe away, &c." This phrase will remind the reader of Charia's exclamation in the Eunuch of Terence ;-" O faciem pulchram! deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres." STEEVENS. 9 My TABLES,-meet it is, I set it down,] This is a ridicule on the practice of the time. Hall says, in his character of the |