The JOKE goes back to the 16th century. It is and was then a piece of fiction, okay so it's a black joke, but if we keep on sanitising like this there'll be no humour left in the world at all! It is not suggesting you should go out and beat your wife, nor is it condoning it. It is a piece of fiction, a joke.
Does this mean we have to cut out all the cuckolding jokes as well? You girls had better stop singing 'O dear O'. It's not fair to men!