_Legend of Change._--In one of the Magazines for November, a legend, stated to be of oriental origin, is given, in which an immortal, visiting at distant intervals the same spot, finds it occupied by a city, an ocean, a forest, and a city again: the mortals whom he found there, on each occasion, believing that the present state had existed for ever. I have seen in the newspapers, at different times, a poem (or I rather think two poems) founded on this legend; and I should like to know the author or authors, and whether it, or either of them, is to be found in any collection of poems. D. X. * * * * * PASSAGE IN HAMLET. "Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousell'd, disappointed, unaneld'd." _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 5. 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 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 _unanointed_, and some _unappointed_. Not approving of either of these words, as connected with _unanealed_, Pope, no timid corrector of texts, reads _unaneld_, which he supposes to signify _unknelled_, or the having no knell rung. To these emendations and interpretations Mr. Theobald, whose merit as a commentator of 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 _ele_, 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.' "The _unassoiled_ was no less proper, will appear from due attention to the word _assoile_, which of course is derived from _absolvo_; and the transition from _absolve_ into _assoyle_ is demonstrated in the following passage from Piers Plowman, Vision, p. 3.: