ON THE DERIVATION OF "THE RACK."
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.
[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.
SAMUEL HICKSON.