BIRCH

DUKE

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. . .

—Measure for Measure [Act I, sc. 3]

SCHOOLMASTER

By title pedagogus, that let fall

The BIRCH upon the breeches

of the small ones,

And humble with a ferula the tall ones,

Do here present this machine, or this frame.

—Two Noble Kinsmen [Act III, sc. 5]