ded to by Shakespeare in
"Troilus and Cressida" (iii. 2), where Troilus, speaking of the
sincerity of his love, tells Cressida it is,

"As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate."

There is a little doubt as to the exact meaning of plantage in this
passage. Nares observes that it probably means anything that is planted;
but Mr. Ellacombe, in his "Plant-lore of Shakespeare" (1878, p. 165),
says "it is doubtless the same as plantain."

It appears that, in days gone by, "neither sowing, planting, nor
grafting was ever undertaken without a scrupulous attention to the
increase or waning of the moon."[119] Scot, in his "Discovery of
Witchcraft," notes how "the poore husbandman perceiveth that the
increase of the moone maketh plants fruitful, so as in the full moone
they are in best strength; decaieing in the wane, and in the conjunction
do utterlie wither and vade."

[119] See Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1873, vol. i. p. 130;
"English Folk-Lore," 1878, pp. 41, 42.

It was a prevailing notion that the moon had an attending star--Lilly
calls it "Lunisequa;" and Sir Richard Hawkins, in his "Observations in a
Voyage to the South Seas in 1593," published in 1622, remarks: "Some I
have heard say, and others write, that there is a starre which never
separateth itself from the moon, but a small distance." Staunton
considers that there is an allusion to this idea in "Love's Labour's
Lost" (iv. 3), where the king says:

"My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon:
She an attending star, scarce seen a light."

The sharp ends of the new moon are popularly termed horns--a term which
occurs in "Coriolanus" (i. 1)--

"they threw their caps
As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon."

It is made use of in Decker's "Match me in London" (i.):

"My lord, doe you see this change i' the moone?
Sharp hornes doe threaten windy weather."

When the horns of the moon appear to point upwards the moon is said to
be like a boat, and various weather prognostications are drawn from this
phenomenon.[120] According to sailors, it is an omen of fine weather,
whereas others affirm it is a sign of rain--resembling a basin full of
water about to fall.

[120] See Swainson's "Weather-Lore," pp. 182, 183.

Among other items of folk-lore connected with the moon we may mention
the moon-calf, a false conception, or foetus imperfectly formed