Vex not his ghost: O! let him pass; he hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.

These lines are spoken in Shakespeare’s tragedy *King Lear* during the storm scenes, after Lear has been driven into the wilderness and is unraveling under grief, betrayal, and exposure. Lear’s followers and companions—most notably the loyal Kent and the Fool—try to manage his increasingly erratic behavior and protect him from further harm. The speech reflects a moment when those around Lear urge restraint and mercy, suggesting that to keep pressing or “stretching out” a suffering person is a kind of cruelty. The imagery of the “rack” evokes torture, aligning Lear’s continued endurance of worldly hardship with prolonged torment.

The speaker pleads for compassion toward someone already broken by suffering. “Vex not his ghost” treats the living person as if he is already half-dead—reduced to a haunted remnant of himself—so further provocation would be desecration. The metaphor of the “rack of this tough world” frames existence as an instrument of torture: life’s pressures have already stretched the victim to the limit, and to prolong that stretching is inhumane. The passage crystallizes *King Lear*’s bleak vision of human vulnerability and the ethical demand, amid cruelty and chaos, to recognize when endurance becomes needless torment.