abeth. But when, upon the assassination of
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, it was proposed, in the Privy Council, to
put the assassin to the rack, in order to discover his accomplices, the
judges (being consulted) declared unanimously, to their own honor and
the honor of the English law, that no such proceeding was allowable by
the law of England." Mr. Hallam observes that, though the English law
never recognized the use of torture, yet there were many instances of
its employment in the reign of Elizabeth and James; and, among others,
in the case of the Gunpowder Plot. He further adds, in the latter part
of the reign of Elizabeth "the rack seldom stood idle in the Tower." Of
the many allusions to this torture may be mentioned Sebastian's word in
"Twelfth Night" (v. 1):

"Antonio! O my dear Antonio!
How have the hours rack'd and tortured me,
Since I have lost thee."

In "Measure for Measure" (v. 1), Escalus orders the "unreverend and
unhallow'd friar" (the Duke disguised) to be taken to the rack:

"Take him hence; to the rack with him!--We'll touse you
Joint by joint."

The engine, which sometimes meant the rack, is spoken of in "King Lear"
(i. 4):

"Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
From the fix'd place."[849]

[849] It also meant a warlike engine, as in "Coriolanus," v. 4:
"When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks
before his treading;" so, also, in "Troilus and Cressida," ii. 3.

So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Night Walker" (iv. 5):

"Their souls shot through with adders, torn on engines."

Once more, in "Measure for Measure" (ii. 1), where Escalus tells how

"Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none"

--a passage which Mr. Dyce would thus read:

"Some run from brakes of vice."

It has been suggested that there is an allusion to "engines of torture,"
although, owing to the many significations of the word "brake," its
meaning here has been much disputed.[850]

[850] See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 49; Halliwell-Phillipps's
"Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 56; Nares's "Glossary,"
vol. i. p. 104.

_Stocks._ This old-fashioned mode of punishment is the subject of
frequent allusion by Shakespeare. Thus, Launce, in the "Two Gentlemen of
Verona" (iv. 4), says: "I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath
stolen." In "All's Well that Ends Well" (iv. 3), Bertram says: "Come,
bring forth this counterfe