.April 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



391 



I entertain for his labours, I see no reason why 

 my j udgment 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, Nw 

 turall Historie. 



Steevens, in reference to the last quotation, says, 

 "I should explain the word rack somewhat differ- 

 ently, 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 Home 

 •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 em- 

 ployed 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 changing 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 ivrecked, and that it 



should be derived from ppac, past part, of ppikan, 

 to wreak ; in short, that it is identical with the 

 word in the Tempest in the general sense of re- 

 mains ; in the present case, in its special appli- 

 cation, meaning, as Steevens explains, " the last 

 fleeting vestige * 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 de- 

 scriptive of an effect of their dispersion. 



Samu£i< Hickson. 



Book-keepers. — There is a class of persons who 

 fall under this denomination, and to whom the 

 following lines may give a useful hint. Doubtless 

 some of your correspondents, who are furnifijied 

 with valuable libraries and works of reference, 

 have suffered materially from a neglect of the rules 

 herein laid down. f . 



Lines for the heginning of a Book. 

 1. 

 " If thou art borrow'd by a friend, 

 Right welcome shall he be. 

 To read, to study, not to lend, 

 But to return to me. 



2. 

 " Not that imparted knowledge doth 

 Diminish learning's store ; 

 But books I find, if often lent. 

 Return to me no more. 



3. 

 '^■^ ■'- \ '■ " Read slowly, pause frequently, 

 Think seriously, return duly. 

 With the corners of the leaves not turned down,"^^ 



The Substitution of the Letter " I " for " /" in 

 the Names of " John, James, Jane,'' 8fc. — Will you 

 permit me to ask the reason of the absurd, and 

 sometimes inconvenient, custom of substituting / 

 for J in MS. spelling of the names John, James, 

 Jane, &c, ? If it be correct in MS., why is it not 

 equally correct in print ? Let us, then, just see 

 how the names would read in print with such 



*_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 re-. 

 mains behind to tell the tale. 



