The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant, faded,
Leave not a rack behind."—Tempest, Act IV. Sc. 1.
As I have expressed my opinion that this is not at all a question of etymology, I shall not say more in reference to this view of the case than that "rack," spelt as in Shakspeare, is a word in popular and every-day use in the phrase "rack and ruin;" that we have it in the term "rack off," as applied to wine, meaning to take from the rack, or, in other words, "to leave a rack" or refuse "behind," racked wine being wine drawn from the lees; and that it is, I believe, still in use in parts of England, meaning remains or refuse, as, in the low German, "der Wraek" means the same thing. Misled, however, by an unusual mode of spelling, and unacquainted with the literature of Shakspeare's age, certain of the commentators suggested the readings of track and trace; whereupon Horne Tooke remarks:—
"The ignorance and presumption of his commentators have shamefully disfigured Shakspeare's text. The first folio, notwithstanding some few palpable misprints, requires none of their alterations. Had they understood English as well as he did, they would not have quarrelled with his language."—Diversions of Purley, p. 595.
He proceeds to show that rack "is merely the past tense, and therefore past participle,
I beg now to transcribe a note Of Mr. Collier's on this passage:—