ABSTRACT
If we are to accept the Rabbinical interpretation of the account of the fall of man, flagellation as domestic discipline commenced in the garden of Eden, and the mother of all mankind was the first to apply the Rod. The rabbis declare that when Adam pleaded that the woman gave him of the tree and he did eat, he means that she gave it him palpably—that, in fact, she laid it on so energetically that he was forced to give in, and “did eat” under compulsion; and many ladies, we know, have followed her example and assumed a right to correct their husbands. Butler, in his “Hudibras,” gives unotable instance:— “Did not a certain Lady whip Of late her husband’s own Lordship? And, though a Grandee of the House, Clawed him with fundamental blows, Tied him stark-naked to a bed-post And firked his hide as if sh’ had rid post; And after, in the Sessions Court, Where whipping’s judged, had honour for it.”
