When fathers kill their children, they run the risk not merely of being reproached, but of being hanged; but this reading is a mere sophistication by some one who did not understand the true reading, rearward. Leonato threatens to take his daughter's life after having reproached her.
Taming of the Shrew, p. 145.:
"O, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor's race," &c.
"The daughter of Agenor's race" for "the daughter of Agenor" is awkward, but there is a far more decisive objection to this alteration. To compare the beauty of Bianca with the beauty of Europa is a legitimate comparison; but to compare the beauty of Bianca with Europa herself, is of course inadmissible. Here is another corruption introduced in order to produce rhyming couplet; restore the old reading, "the daughter of Agenor had."
The Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. 2., p. 191.:
"If, &c., let me be enrolled, and any name put in the book of virtue."
We have here an abortive attempt to correct the nonsensical reading of the old copies, unrolled; but if enrolled itself makes sense, it does so only by introducing tautology. Besides, it leads us away from what I believe to be the true reading, unrogued.
King John, Act V. Sc. 7., p. 212.:
"Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,