hinks that Hamlet alludes to this saying (i. 2), for when
the king says to him,

"How is it that the clouds still hang on you?"

he replies,

"Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun,"

_i. e._, out of God's blessing.

This expression, says Mr. Dyce,[100] is found in various authors from
Heywood down to Swift. The former has:

"In your running from him to me, yee runne
Out of God's blessing into the warme sunne;"

and the latter:

"_Lord Sparkish._ They say, marriages are made in heaven; but
I doubt, when she was married, she had no friend there.

_Neverout._ Well, she's got out of God's blessing into the
warm sun."[101]

[100] "Glossary to Shakespeare," p. 283.

[101] Ray gives the Latin equivalent "Ab equis ad asinos."

There seems to have been a prejudice from time immemorial against
sunshine in March; and, according to a German saying, it were "better to
be bitten by a snake than to feel the sun in March." Thus, in "1 Henry
IV." (iv. 1), Hotspur says:

"worse than the sun in March,
This praise doth nourish agues."

Shakespeare employs the word "sunburned" in the sense of uncomely,
ill-favored. In "Much Ado" (ii. 1), Beatrice says, "I am sunburnt;" and
in "Troilus and Cressida" (i. 3), AEneas remarks:

"The Grecian dames are sunburnt, and not worth
The splinter of a lance."

_Moon._ Apart from his sundry allusions to the "pale-faced," "silver
moon," Shakespeare has referred to many of the superstitions associated
with it, several of which still linger on in country nooks. A widespread
legend of great antiquity informs us that the moon is inhabited by a
man,[102] with a bundle of sticks on his back, who has been exiled
thither for many centuries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the
reach of death. This tradition, which has given rise to many
superstitions, is still preserved under various forms in most countries;
but it has not been decided who the culprit originally was, and how he
came to be imprisoned in his lonely abode. Dante calls him Cain; Chaucer
assigns his exile as a punishment for theft, and gives him a thorn-bush
to carry, while Shakespeare also loads him with the thorns, but by way
of compensation gives him a dog for a companion. In "The Tempest" (ii.
2), Caliban asks Stephano whether he has "not dropped from heaven?" to
which he answers, "Out o' the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man i'
the moon wh