Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

rank exuberant, grown to great height: “what, so rank?” HENRY VIII., i. 2. 186 （ “what, was he advanced to this pitch?” JOHNSON) ; “rank Achilles,” TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, i. 3. 318 ; “who else is rank” JULIUS CAESAR, iii. 1. 153 ( “who else may be supposed to have overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the public safety,” JOHNSON ; but here Malone, wrongly, I believe, would understand rank as “replete with blood),”; “Rain added to a river that is rank” VENUS AND ADONIS, 71 (brimful); “A ranker rate,” HAMLET, iv. 4. 22.