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.

The quoted lines have been cited from Act I scene III of William Shakespeare’s problem play Measure For Measure. Measure for
Measure explores the spectrum from absolute justice to absolute mercy, with different characters representing different
points along this spectrum. While the formal classifications ‘problem play’,’allegory’,’morality’,or ‘satire’ are misleading ,there
can be no doubt that the play is profoundly concerned with major intellectual issues such as ‘justice and Mercy’, ‘Grace and
Nature’, ‘Creation and Death’. It begins as a tragedy, but half-way through it becomes a comedy. Northrop Frye, for one,
considers this to be the most important question of the play. He writes: “Measure for Measure is not a play about the
philosophy of government . . . [or] the social problem of prostitution . . . [but rather] about the relation of all such things to
the structure of comedy”.

Duke Vincentio utters the quoted lines to Friar Thomas.In Act I Scene III we can find that the Duke has come to the Friar’s cell
and now is asking the friar to shelter him secretly in the monastery while he is away from the Viennese court. Before leaving the
court and handing power to his deputy Angelo, the Duke explains, he announced that he was travelling to Poland. The real
reason for his departure, he reveals, was very different. In disguise he wants to live in the monastery and spy on Angelo. The
Duke points out that for the past fourteen years he has given the liberty to his subjects to despise the laws of Vienna, "liberty
plucks justice by the nose." What's interesting is that the Duke talks about his subjects as though they are horses that need to
be reined in by "bits and curbs." It is in this time that the Duke utters the quoted lines to make his words more clear.The Duke
metaphorically compares the laws of his kingdom to “an o’er-grown lion in a cave” that does not go for hunting and has lost his
all power.Similarly the laws have also lost their value for their inertia.

In the quoted lines the Duke uses a metaphor and compares himself with an over-indulgent father who only makes his children
afraid with the rod but never actually uses it to punish the children.He suggests that if the rod is always used for only making
them afraid but not for actually giving punishments then after sometimes the rod would become a subject of being mocked
instead of being feared.That’s why he wants to change the ruler to improve the corrupt situation.In order to avoid seeming like a
tyrant by enforcing laws harshly after years of gentle rule, the Duke has bid Angelo to act as the enforcer. This way, people will
not feel as unfairly deprived of the liberties they enjoyed under the Duke.

The duke obviously realizes that laws are necessary,that their enforcement is essential if they are to remain potent,that topsy-
turveydome occurs if the rulers acts like foolish parents.Vincentio’s account of official negligence is couched in palliative
language because at the moment he plays the indulgent father whose laxity has led nothing more serious than decorum gone
athwart.This lines echoes of what Puritan extraordinaire Phillip Stubbes wrote in his famous pamphlet The Anatomy of
Abuses (1587). Stubbes (who hated the theater and thought the government in England was too lax) complains that parents who
don't punish their children are responsible for all of society's problems: "Give a wild horse the liberty of the head never so little
and he will run headlong to thine and his own destruction also. [...] So correct Children in their tender years."Similarly here
the Duke suggests that to save his kingdom from being corrupt he has taken this decision. The duke himself points out, he
has neglected this role as head of the house hold: he has been like those ‘‘fond fathers’’ who merely threaten to use
the rod but do not follow through. His leniency has led to moral decay.Now, ruling over his ‘‘children,’’ he wants to
reestablish good husbandry.

Although the law has not been enforced for many years, it is still valid, because it was not revoked. But we should take into
account that one of the sources of a law is the custom of a people, and if a particular act is no longer punished and consequently
becomes a custom, the law should be modified to follow society’s trends and thereby fulfill its social role. In that case,
modification should focus on the dosage of the penalty. Impunity has encouraged the practice of lechery according to the
duke.Through these lines it can be perceived that Vienna has lost its morality and etiquette because of being in liberty for
several years and the Duke,like a father attempts to fill up the vacuum of morality,created by extra freedom.