en time was." Whereupon Caliban says: "I have seen thee in
her and I do adore thee: my mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog and thy
bush." We may also compare the expression in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream"
(v. 1), where, in the directions for the performance of the play of
"Pyramus and Thisbe," Moonshine is represented "with lanthorn, dog, and
bush of thorn." And further on, in the same scene, describing himself,
Moonshine says: "All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the
lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon;[103] this thorn-bush, my
thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog."

[102] Baring-Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877,
p. 190.

[103] Cf. "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2): "Yet still she is the
moon, and I the man."

Ordinarily,[104] however, his offence is stated to have been
Sabbath-breaking--an idea derived from the Old Testament. Like the man
mentioned in the Book of Numbers (xv. 32), he is caught gathering sticks
on the Sabbath; and, as an example to mankind, he is condemned to stand
forever in the moon, with his bundle on his back. Instead of a dog, one
German version places him with a woman, whose crime was churning butter
on Sunday. The Jews have a legend that Jacob is the moon, and they
believe that his face is visible. Mr. Baring-Gould[105] says that the
"idea of locating animals in the two great luminaries of heaven is very
ancient, and is a relic of a primeval superstition of the Aryan race."
The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon;
and the Chinese represent the moon by "a rabbit pounding rice in a
mortar."[106]

[104] Fiske, "Myths and Mythmakers," 1873, p. 27.

[105] "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877, p. 197.

[106] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 10.

From the very earliest times the moon has not only been an object of
popular superstition, but been honored by various acts of adoration. In
Europe,[107] in the fifteenth century, "it was a matter of complaint
that some still worshipped the new moon with bended knee, or hood or hat
removed. And to this day we may still see a hat raised to her, half in
conservatism and half in jest. It is with deference to silver as the
lunar metal that money is turned when the act of adoration is performed,
while practical peasant wit dwells on the ill-luck of having no piece of
silver when the new moon is first seen." Shakespeare often incidentally
alludes to this