ABSTRACT
At the beginning of Richard Brome’s 1638 comic play, The Antipodes-the fi rst titular reference to the region in any language-a doctor learns of a sick patient who contains in his body “news too much . . . / For any homebred, Christian understanding.” The doctor is urged to
Play the man-midwife and deliver him Of his huge timpany [swelling]of news-of monsters, Pigmies, and giants, apes, and elephants, Griffins, and crocodiles, men upon women, And women upon men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
