82 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 275. 



be disputed, and to this opinion many readers will 

 readily give their assent. 



Long as this note may be, still it cannot be 

 closed before briefly referring to three distin- 

 guished travellers, who perished shortly after 

 navigating the Dead Sea, and left their remains 

 not very far from its banks. The first was the 

 much-regretted Costigan, whom the writer met at 

 Constantinople before starting on his fatal expe- 

 dition, and whose "melancholy story is known." 

 Lieutenant Molyneaux, of H. M. S. " Spartan," 

 in 1847 was the second unfortunate victim. He 

 passed three days, and as many nights, in his boat ; 

 and died on returning to his ship of the fever which 

 be caught at that time. The notes left by this 

 gallant young officer " were read before the Geo- 

 graphical Society, and noticed in the Athenccum." 

 One other name remains only to be mentioned, 

 that of the lamented Dale ; he breathed his last 

 on the hills of Lebanon, and was buried at Bey- 

 rout. Second in command of the United States' 

 Expedition to the Dead Sea, he died in the ser- 

 vice of his country ; and the beautiful tribute paid 

 to his memory by Commander Lynch will tell 

 how much his loss was regretted. 



William Winthbop. 



Malta. 



THE MAN IN THE MOON. 



" Mon in the mone, stond and streit ; 



On is bot-forke is burthen he bereth. 

 Hit is muche wonder that he na doun slyt, 



For doute leste he valle, he shoddreth ant shereth : 



When the forst freseth much chele he byd 

 The themes beth kene is hattren to-tereth ; 



Nis no wytht in the world that wot wen he syt 

 Ne, bote hit bue the hegge, whet wedes he wereth. 



" Whider trowe this mon ha the wey take, 



He hath set is o fot is other to foren, 

 For non hithte that he hath ne sytht me hym ner shake, 



He is the sloweste mon that ever was yboren. 



Wher he were othe feld pyechynde stake, 

 For hope of ys thornes to dutten is doren, 



He mot myd is twybyl other trous make, 

 Other al is dayes werk ther were yloren. 



" This ilke mon upon heh whener he were, 



Wher he were y the mone boren aut yfed, 

 He leneth on is forke ase a grey frere, 



This crokede caynard sore he is adred. 



Hit is mony day go that he was here, 

 Ichot of is ernde he nath nout j'sped ; 



He hath hewe sumwher a burthen of brere. 

 Therefore sum hayward hath taken ys wed. 



" 5ef thy wed ys ytake, bring horn the trous, 



Set forth thyn other fot, stryd over sty ; 

 We schule preye the haywart hom to ur hous, 



Ant maken hym at hej'se for the maystry ; 



Drynke to hym deorly of fol god bous, 

 Ant our dame Douse shal sitten hym by. 



When that he is dronke ase a dreynt mous, 

 Thenne we schul borewe the wed ate bayly. 



" This mon hereth me nout, thah ich to hym crye, 

 Ichot the cherl is def, the del hym to-drawe. 



Thah ic t,e^e upon beth nulle nout hye 

 The lostlase ladde can nout o lawe. 

 Hupe forth, Hubert, hosede pye 



Ichot thart amarstled in to the mawe ; 



Thah me teone with hym that myn teh mye, 



The cherld nul nout adoun er the day dawe." 



Harl. MS. 2253. 



We are here presented with the idea our an- 

 cestors entertained of an imaginary being*, the 

 subject of perhaps one of the most ancient as well 

 as one of the most popular superstitions in the 

 world. He is represented leaning on a fork, on 

 which he carries a bunch of thorns, because it was 

 for " pyechynde stake" on a Sunday that he is 

 reported to have been thus confined. There can- 

 not be a doubt that the following is the origin of 

 the idea, however the moon became connected 

 with it. See Numbers xv. 32. : 



" And while the children of Israel were in the wilder- 

 ness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the 

 sabbath day," &c. 



To have a care " Lest the chorle may fall out 

 of the moone " appears from Chaucer's Troilus and 

 Cressida to have been a proverbial expression in 

 his time. In the Midsummer Night's Dream, 

 Peter Quince, in arranging his dramatis personce. 

 for the play before the duke, directs that " one 

 must come in with a bush of thornes and a lan- 

 tern, and say he comes in to disfigure or to present 

 the person of moonshine," which we afterwards 

 find done. " All that I have to say," concludes 

 the performer of this strange part, "is, to tell you. 

 that the lantern is the moon, I the man in the 

 moon, this thorn -bush my thorn-bush, and this 

 dog my dog." See Tempest also, Act II. Sc. 2. : 

 " Ste. I was the man in the moon, when time was. 

 Cal. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; 

 My mistress showed me thee, thy dog, and bush." 

 So far the tradition is still preserved among 

 nurses and schoolboys ; but how the culprit came 

 to be imprisoned in the moon is still to be ac- 

 counted for. It should seem that he had not 

 merely gathered sticks on the sabbath, but that 

 he has stolen what he had gathered, as appears 

 from the following lines In Chaucer's Testament 

 of Creseide, where the poet, descrlbiftg the moon,, 

 informs us that she had 

 " On her brest a chorle painted painted ful even, 

 Bearing a bush of thorns on his backe. 

 Which for his theft might clime no ner the heven." 

 We are to suppose that he was doomed to per- 

 petual confinement in this planet, and precluded 

 from every possibility of Inhabiting the mansions 

 of the just. With the Italians Cain appears to 

 have been the offender, and he is alluded to In a 

 very extraordinary manner by Dante in the 20th 

 canto of the Inferno, where the moon is described 



[* Our correspondent is of course aware that the song, 

 with some similar remarks on this "imaginary being," 

 have been noticed by Ritson in his Ancient Songs, p. 34., 

 edit. 1792. — Ed.] 



