Some time ago I ventured to call the attention of your readers to what I
regarded as an oversight of the commentators on Shakspeare, in reference
to a certain passage of the _Tempest_ in which the word "rack" occurs.
It seemed to me that, with the exception of Malone, having overlooked
the construction of the passage, they had been misled by the authority
of Horne Tooke; for to every other part being conceded its due weight
and meaning, and assuming, with Horne Tooke, that Shakspeare understood
English at least as well as his commentators, I could not conceive it
possible that there could be a serious doubt as to the value of the word
in question. I have no wish, now, to say a word in addition upon this
point, firmly convinced as I am that the time will come when "(w)rack"
will be generally received by critics as it always has been by everybody
else, as the true reading; but I have a few observations to make on the
derivation of the word used by Shakspeare and others, with which it has
been so often identified, which I trust will be found worthy of a few
moments' consideration.
Horne Tooke is justly regarded as a very high authority, and certainly I
should be the last to deny how deeply philology is indebted to the
originality of his views; yet with the respect that I entertain for his
labours, I see no reason why my judgment should abdicate its place, even
though its conclusion should be that he was not always infallible. In
considering the meaning of "rack" in the _Tempest_, I treated the
question entirely as one of construction, and therefore allowed the
supposed derivation of the same word in other places from Recan, _to
reek_, to stand unexamined and unquestioned; but let us look now a
little more closely into the matter, and I think I shall be able to make
it appear that this conclusion is not altogether so unquestionable as
many may have supposed. That the application of the word may be more
clearly seen, I beg leave to quote a few passages:
"That which is now a horse, even with a thought,
The _rack_ dislimns, and makes it indistinct
As water is in water."
_Ant. & Cleo._ Act IV. Sc. 12.
"Far swifter than the sailing _rack_ that gallops
Upon the wings of angry winds."
_Women Pleased_, Act IV. Sc. 1.
"Shall I stray
In the middle air, and stay
The sailing _rack_?"
_Faithful Shepherdess_, Act V. Sc. 1.
"But as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the _rack_ stand still."
_Hamlet_, Act II. Sc. 2.
"The winds in the upper regions which move the clouds above (which
we call the _rack_)."
Bacon, _Naturall Historie_.
Steevens, in reference to the last quotation, says, "I should explain
the word _rack_ somewhat differently, by calling it 'the last fleeting
vestige of the highest clouds, scarce perceptible on account of their
distance and tenuity.' What was anciently called 'the rack' is now
termed by sailors _the scud_." It is sufficiently obvious from the above
what is meant by the word; but I now come to put the question, What
authority had Horne Tooke for deriving it from Recan? It is, in fact,
nothing more than a guess, the less probable as the word represents only
an indirect result--not the clouds themselves, but a peculiar effect
produced upon the clouds by the action of the winds. In another passage
(in which I recognise the hand of Shakspeare) the formation of the
_rack_ is employed as an illustration; and in this instance "reek" would
hardly stand as a substitute for the verb used.
"I might perceive his eye in her eye lost,
His ear to drink her sweet tongue's utterance;
And chasing passion, like inconstant clouds,--
That, _rackt upon the carriage of the winds,
Increase, and die_,--in his disturbed cheeks."
_Edward III._, Act II. Sc. 1.
From this it would appear that the _rack_ is literally that which has
been _wrecked_, and that it should be derived from wrac, past part. of
wrikan, _to wreak_; in short, that _it is_ identical with the word in
the _Tempest_ in the general sense of _remains_; in the present case, in
its special application, meaning, as Steevens explains, "_the last
fleeting vestige_[4] of the highest clouds" previous to their final
disappearance. Had it ever been used with the general sense of _vapour_
or _exhalation_, or even generally for _a cloud_ or _the clouds_, the
case would be different; but in fact, no examples can be produced by
which it can be shown that such was ever its meaning; and in the absence
of proof it will be noted as not a little remarkable that, _not_ being
used to represent _the clouds_, which _already exist_ in the form of
vapour or exhalations, it is only employed when a word is required
descriptive of an effect of their _dispersion_.
[Footnote 4: Indeed, the action of the winds is one and the same,
whether upon clouds on the face of heaven, or upon bodies at sea;
and the _wrack_ of one and the other, broken into fragments, for a
fleeting space _remains behind_ to tell the tale.]