ABSTRACT
In the climactic scene in Thomas Middleton's play, More Dissemblers Besides Women (1614), a pregnant Page swoons and calls out for a midwife after rigorous dancing lessons. Cinquepace, an onlooker, observes: A midwife? By this light, the boy's with child! A miracle! Some woman is the father. The world's turned upside down. Sure if men breed Women must get; one never could do both yet. No marv'l you danced close-knee'd the cinquepace Put up my fiddle; here's a stranger case.
