1894 Brewer’s / M / Midsummer-Moon Madness
ʹTis Midsummer-moon with you. You are stark mad. Madness is supposed to be affected by the moon, and to be aggravated by summer heat; so it naturally follows that the full moon at midsummer is the time when madness is most outrageous.
“What’s this midsummer moon?
Is all the world gone a-madding?”
Dryden: Amphitryon, iv. 1.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.