"'Rack' is vapour, from _reck_, as Horne Tooke showed; and the light
clouds on the face of heaven are the 'rack,' or vapour from the earth.
The word 'rack' was often used in this way."--Coll. _Shaksp._, vol. i.
p. 70.
Mr. Knight appears to incline to the same view; and regarding these as the
two latest authorities, and finding in neither of them any reference to the
question of construction, I naturally concluded that the point had been
overlooked by the commentators. On reference, however, I found to my
surprise, that Malone, for the very same reasons, had come to the same
conclusion. Had Malone's argument been briefly stated by the "two latest
and best editors," I should, of course, have had no occasion to trouble you
with this note: and this instance, it appears to me, furnishes additional
reasons for enforcing the principle for which I am contending; the neglect
of it affecting, in however slight a degree, the sense or correctness of so
important and frequently quoted a passage. For my own part, I should have
thought that the commonest faith in Shakspeare would have protected any
editor, whose avowed object it was to restore the text, from preferring in
this instance, to the plain common sense of Malone, the more showy
authority of Horne Tooke.
In my last paper I wrote,--"So far as quantity is concerned, to eat a
crocodile would be _no_ more than to eat an ox." You have omitted the
negative.