Percy B. Green wrote "A History of Nursery Rhymes" (1899). Here's what he said about this rhyme…
Story-telling in the Reformation period was so prevalent that the wonderful tales were satirised in the following rhyme, dated 1588:
I Saw a Man in the Moon
I saw a man in the moon. Fie, man, fie.
I saw a hare chase a hound. Fie, man, fie.
Twenty miles above the ground. Fie, man, fie.
Who's the fool now?
I saw a goose ring a hog,
And a snail bite a dog!
I saw a mouse catch a cat,
And a cheese eat a rat. Fie, man, fie.
Who's the fool now?
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