The Baby Beats the Nurse

We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds.
Which of this fourteen years we have let slip,
Even like an o’vergrown lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey. Now, as found fathers,
Having bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch.
Only to stick it in their children’s sight
For Terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mocked than feared; 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.

In this passage the Duke is speaking to the Friar about the conditions of the law in Venice. Through the Duke, Shakespeare acknowledges the need for terror and love when it comes to ruling. Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian writer of the 14th century, described that every ruler wishes to have fear and love from his/her people. The fear is to be used as a tool for administration of the law, while the love guarantees the allegiance of the people. This play interrogates the consequences of terror that is used as a mere threat rather than implemented and put into action. In the above passage the duke describes Venice as “the baby beats the nurse,” which clearly portrays the flaw in society. The power is in the wrong hands, and because of it—justice is being dismembered.

The language used in this passage pertains to the idea of the “language of bodies.” If the term “we” is followed in this passage we see it first being used in the first line referring to the Duke and the people of the Vienna. The second time it is used is in the third line when the Duke says “which for this fourteen years we have let slip.” The term “we” in this line only pertains to the Duke and his belief that he has been inviting immorality into Venice over the past several years. Although being represented by the same term, the Duke shifts the blame for the failure of the Vienna society from the people who acted against the law, to himself for not ruling in a proper manner.

Sadia Mirza