Racine's dramatic genius was essentially French, or pseudo-classical, and therefore it is not easy for Englishmen trained to appreciate the power, magnificence, and variety of the Shakespearian tragedy, to sympathize with it or to criticise it impartially. In the eyes of his countrymen, he is the most perfect, if not the most sublime, of all their dra matists. Corneille may at times exhibit a grander and more rugged energy, but in beauty, grace, and a certain tender majesty of style, Racine is held to be without a rival; and it must be remembered that style, and not portraiture of human character• is the thing in which French dramatists aim to shine. The declamations in which the heroes and heroines of Racine indulge are marvelously fine pieces of rhetoric; but, com pared with the Elizabethan drama, they are deficient in deep insight into human nature and in genuine passion, while humor is altogether excluded. See Memoires of Racine., edited by his son Louis. The editions of his works are innumerable, and some arc of great splendor; that of Girodet (Paris, 3 vols. 1801-05) being reckoned one of the finest specimens of typography in the world.
RACK (Sax. ?mean, Ger. recken, to stretch), an instrument of torture, used for ing confessions from criminals and suspected persons. It consisted of a large oblong frame of wood, with four beams a little raised from the ground, on which the sufferer was stretched and bound. Cords were attached to his extremities, and gradually
strained by means of a lever and pulleys, till the operation, if persisted in, caused dislo cation of the limbs. The rack was known in the 1st and 2d centuries in the s. of Europe, and applied to the early Christians. It was in use in England in the 15th and 16th centuries. According to Coke, it was first introduced into the tower by the duke of Exeter, constable of the tower, in 1447, whence it came to be called the "duke of Exeter's daughter." It is mentioned by Holinshed in 1467; but its „pse first became common in the time of Henry VIII. as an implement of torture for prisoners confined in the Tower. The infliction of the punishment of the rack took place during the reign of the Tudor sovereigns by warrant of council, or under the sign-manual. In 1628, however, on the murder by Felton of the duke of Buckingham, it being proposed in the privy-council to put the assassin to the rack, in order that lie might discover his accom plices, the judges resisted the proceeding, as contrary to the law of England. In vari ous countries of Europe the rack has been much used both by the civil authorities in Cases of traitors and conspirators, and by members of the inquisition to extort a recanta tion of heresy. It is no longer in use in any part of Europe.