Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay, Poquette discusses the ambiguous morality that Middleton demonstrates in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

Modern readers may walk away from Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside shocked and appalled. The play takes place during Lent, a penitent time in some Christian denominations, but features several acts that are anything but holy. A husband willingly allows his wife to have sex with another man in return for financial security; another unwittingly pays for the opportunity to be cuckolded; and, a bastard child is wittingly donated to royal spies by being disguised as a basket of meat. With incidents such as these, Middleton's moral intent with the play has been widely discussed and challenged. Middleton was a Christian and has been labeled both a Calvinist and a Puritan by various critics. The...