DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0b013e31818a28d3

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PMID: 18852609

Issn Print: 0196-206X

Publication Date: 2008/10/01


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Difficulties Re-establishing Discipline

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As has been noted previously in these spaces, despite the literary genius of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), he had little to say about the inner world of prepubertal children or their upbringing. Yet, some valuable illustrations of insight do occur. For example, in Measure for Measure the Duke Vincentio wishes to do a better job of enforcing his social laws, which he has been neglecting. He goes into hiding and turns the job over to a trusted lieutenant, Angelo, who goes too far, and thus the dramatic tension is created. This is how the Duke sees the situation at the outset.
“We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong jades,
Which for this fourteen years we have let slip;
Even like an o’er-grown lion in a cave
That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,
Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children’s sight
For terror, not to use, in time the rod
Becomes more mock’d than fear’d: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose,
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.”
This is, of course, primarily a description of the civil disorder likely to occur when certain laws on social comportment are not enforced. However, pediatricians will note the reference to the indulgences of the fond father. When family rules have been allowed to be ignored, parents find it difficult to return to the “decorum.”
In this play the Duke’s deputy is too severe in resuming an enforcement of the law against fornication, resulting in some dark passages, but they are eventually resolved. The play is regarded as a comedy but that element comes mostly from some secondary characters with names like Elbow, Froth, Pompey, and Mistress Overdone.
Reference: Shakespeare W. Measure for Measure. Act I, Scene III, Lines 19–31; 1604.
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