Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851 - Various - Страница 2

ON THE WORD "RACK" IN SHAKSPEARE'S TEMPEST

As another illustration of the careless or superficial manner in which the meaning of Shakspeare has been sought, allow me to call attention to the celebrated passage in the Tempest in which the word "rack" occurs. The passage really presents no difficulty; and the meaning of the word, as it appears to me, might as well be settled at once and for ever. I make this assertion, not dogmatically, but with the view of testing the correctness of my opinion, that this is not at all a question of etymology, but entirely one of construction. The passage reads as follows:—

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, or , of the Anglo-Saxon verb Recan, exhalare, to reek;" and although the advocates of its being a particular description of light cloud refer to him as an authority for their reading, he treats it throughout generally as "a vapour, a steam, or an exhalation." But Horne Tooke, in his zeal as an etymologist, forgot altogether to attend to the construction of the passage. What is it that shall "leave not a rack behind?" A rack of what? Not of the baseless fabric of this vision, like which the "cloud-capp'd towers shall dissolve,"—not of this insubstantial pageant, like which they shall have faded,—but of "the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself." There is in fact a double comparison; but the construction and the meaning are perfectly clear, and no word will suit the passage but one that shall express a result common to the different objects enumerated. A cloud may be a fit object for comparison, but it is utterly inconsequential; while the sense required can only be expressed by a general term, such as remains, a vestige, or a trace.

I beg now to transcribe a note Of Mr. Collier's on this passage:—

"'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.

Samuel Hickson.

ANCIENT INEDITED POEMS, NO. III

In my last communication on this subject, I forgot to remark on the strange title given to the monody on Mr. Browne. May I ask if the name of "Chorus" was thus indiscriminately applied at the time when the poem was composed?

The next poem that I shall give is copied from Harleian MSS., 367., art. 60., fol. 158. It is entitled—

"A VERTUOUS WOMAN

The poem has no subscription, nor, from the appearance of the paper, should I say there had been one. The comparatively modern phraseology points to a late era. The poem is bound up with a quantity of John Stowe's papers, and I think is in his handwriting, upon comparing it with other papers known to be his in the same book. As it is my chief object (next to contributing to the preservation and publication of these ancient ballads) to obtain data regarding the anonymous productions of the earlier days of England's literature, any remarks, allow me to say, that other contributors will favour our medium of intercommunication with, will be much appreciated by

Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.

[Our correspondent is certainly mistaken in supposing this poem to be in Stowe's handwriting. We have the best possible authority for assuring him that it is not.]

FOLK LORE

Moths called Souls.—While I am upon this subject, I may as well mention that in Yorkshire the country-people used in my youth, and perhaps do still, call night-flying white moths, especially the Hepialus humuli, which feeds, while in the grub state, on the roots of docks and other coarse plants, "souls." Have we not in all this a remnant of "Psyche?"

F. S.

[This latter paragraph furnishes a remarkable coincidence with the tradition from the neighbourhood of Truro (recorded by Mr. Thoms in his Folk lore of Shakspeare, Athenæum (No. 1041.) Oct. 9. 1847) which gives the name of Piskeys both to the fairies and to moths, which are believed by many to be departed souls.]

Holy Water for the Hooping Cough (vol. iii., p. 179.).—In one of the principal towns of Yorkshire, half a century ago, it was the practice for persons in a respectable class of life to take their children, when afflicted with the hooping cough, to a neighbouring convent, where the priest allowed them to drink a small quantity of holy water out of a silver chalice, which the little sufferers were strictly forbidden to touch. By Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic parents, this was regarded as a remedy. Is not the superstition analogous to that noticed by Mr. Way?

Eboracomb.

Daffy Down Dilly.—At this season, when the early spring flowers are showing themselves, we hear the village children repeating these lines:—

Does not this nursery rhyme throw light upon the character of the royal visitor alluded to in the snail charm recorded by F. J. H. (p. 179.)?

Eboracomb.

DR. MAITLAND'S ILLUSTRATIONS AND ENQUIRIES RELATING TO MESMERISM

I know more than one person who would second the request that I am about to make through "Notes and Queries" to Dr. Maitland, that he would publish the remaining parts of his Illustrations and Enquiries relating to Mesmerism: he would do so, I know, at once, if he thought that anybody would benefit by them; and I can bear witness to Part I. as having been already of some use. It is high time that Christians should be decided as to whether or no they may meddle with the fearful power whose existence is is impossible to ridicule any longer. Dr. Maitland has suggested the true course of thought upon the subject, and promised to lead us along it; but it is impossible at present to use anything that he has said, on account of its incompleteness. In tracing the subject through history, Dr. Maitland would no doubt mention the "Ομφαλόψυχοι, or Umbilicani," of the fourteenth century, whose practices make a page (609.) of Waddington's History of the Church read like a sketch of Middle-age Mesmerism, contemptuously given. Also, in Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet, a belief somewhat similar to theirs is stated to have been preached in the seventh century (Bohn's Reprint in Shilling Series, p. 191.) by a certain Moseïlma, a false prophet.

I may add that Miss Martineau's new book, Letters of the Development of Man's Nature, by Atkinson and Martineau, which cannot be called sceptical, for its unbelief is unhesitating, is the immediate cause of my writing to-day.

A. L. R.

1

Blason, describe.

2

We have here an instance of the use of the word prayers as a dissyllable.