The earliest verified English appearance of the full phrase appears in playwright John Heywood's 1546 compendium, A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tonge. Heywood compiled vernacular speech to satirize domestic squabbles and human folly.
Heywood wrote: "They wolde make one wene... that the moone is made of greene chese." The crucial verb here is wene (ween), an archaic term meaning to believe, imagine, or suppose. Heywood used the line to describe someone so thoroughly deceived or manipulated that they surrendered all basic sensory reasoning.
"They wolde make one wene... that the moone is made of greene chese."
, John Heywood, A Dialogue of Proverbs (1546)
Early modern English literature treated the image as a measure of gullibility. If a corrupt landlord or dishonest merchant persuaded a victim of an obvious absurdity, bystanders observed that the victim would believe the moon was made of green cheese. French satirist François Rabelais deployed the same gag in his 1534 masterpiece Gargantua and Pantagruel, noting that his title giant was foolish enough to believe "that the moon was made of green cheese" (que les vessies estoient lanternes, et la lune faicte de fromage de forme). It was always a joke aimed at the listener's credulity.
