r the performance of Pyramus and Thisby, who
"meet by moonlight," and says, "One must come in with a bush of
thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present,
the person of Moonshine." Then in Act v. the player of that part
says, "All that I have to say is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the
moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and
this dog, my dog." And, secondly, in the _Tempest_, Act ii., Scene
2, Caliban and Stephano in dialogue:

"_Cal_. Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven?
_Ste_. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee. I was the man i' the
moon, when time was.
_Cal_. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee: my mistress
show'd me thee, thy dog, and bush."

Robert Chambers refers the following singular lines to the man in
the moon: adding, "The allusion to Jerusalem pipes is curious;
Jerusalem is often applied, in Scottish popular fiction, to things of a
nature above this world":

"I sat upon my houtie croutie (hams),
I lookit owre my rumple routie (haunch),
And saw John Heezlum Peezlum
Playing on Jerusalem pipes." [29]

Here is an old-fashioned couplet belonging probably to our northern
borders:

"The man in the moon
Sups his sowins with a cutty spoon."

Halliwell explains _sowins_ to be a Northumberland dish of coarse
oatmeal and milk, and a _cutty_ spoon to be a very _small_ spoon.
[30]

Wales is not without a memorial of this myth, for Mr. Baring-Gould
tells us that "there is an ancient pictorial representation of our friend
the Sabbath-breaker in Gyffyn Church, near Conway. The roof of
the chancel is divided into compartments, in four of which are the
evangelistic symbols, rudely, yet effectively painted. Besides these
symbols is delineated in each compartment an orb of heaven. The
sun, the moon, and two stars, are placed at the feet of the Angel, the
Bull, the Lion, and the Eagle. The representation of the moon is as
follows: in the disk is the conventional man with his bundle of
sticks, but without the dog." [31] Mr. Gould says, "our friend the
Sabbath-breaker" perhaps the artist would have said "the thief," for
stealing appears to be more antique.

[Illustration: moon07]

REPRESENTATION IN GYFFYN CHURCH, NEAR CONWAY.

A French superstition, lingering to the present day, regards the man
in the moon as Judas Iscariot, transported to the moon for his
treason. This plainly is a Christian