You can use socat (http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/) to add readline editing and history capability to command shells which do not themselves support it. Each command line will be edited in the plain, so beware of password prompts. Commands are printed again as they are passed on.

function rline () 
{ 
    socat READLINE EXEC:"$*",pty
}
 
# Usage example:
rline ncftp -u anonymous ftp.kernel.org