Multiline commands do not survive history -w/-r

[gazelle]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: x86_64
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='x86_64' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='x86_64-pc-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL 
-DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I../. -I.././include -I.././lib  -Wdate-time 
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat 
-Werror=format-security -Wall
uname output: Linux shell 4.4.0-79-generic #100-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 17 19:58:14 
UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.3
Patch Level: 48
Release Status: release

Description:
        Multiline commands (i.e., a command with embedded newlines) do not 
survive
        intact when written out to the history file and then reloaded.

Repeat-By:
        See attached script file:

Recording to file 'typescript' at: Sun Jun 11 18:51:27 2017.
~s to stop recording, ~r to resume

spawn bash
gazelle@shell:~$ HISTFILE=/tmp/zzz
gazelle@shell:~$ history -c;history -r;history
gazelle@shell:~$ gawk 'BEGIN {
> print "hello, world"
> }'
hello, world
gazelle@shell:~$ history
    1  gawk 'BEGIN {
print "hello, world"
}'
    2  history
gazelle@shell:~$ !1
gawk 'BEGIN {
print "hello, world"
}'
hello, world
gazelle@shell:~$ history -w
gazelle@shell:~$ history -c;history -r;history
    1  gawk 'BEGIN {
    2  print "hello, world"
    3  }'
    4  history
    5  gawk 'BEGIN {
    6  print "hello, world"
    7  }'
    8  history -w
gazelle@shell:~$ !5
gawk 'BEGIN {
> ^C
gazelle@shell:~$ exit


Fix:
        I think there needs to be some kind of "magic character" in the history 
file
        that represents a newline - which would be handled by the -w and -r 
options
        of the history command.