Joanna, I couldn't find you anything useful but couldn't resist posting
this from my google search. About 150 years old and apparently it was very
popular back in the day...
Tina
Old Dog Tray
by
Stephen Foster
The morn of life is past,
And ev'ning comes at last;
It brings me a dream of a once happy day,
Of merry forms I've seen
Upon the village green,
Sporting with my old dog Tray.
Chorus:
Old dog Tray's ever faithful;
Grief cannot drive him away;
He's gentle, he is kind,
I'll never, never find
A better friend than old dog Tray.
The forms I called my own
Have vanish'd one by one,
The lov'd ones, the dear ones have all pass'd away;
Their happy smiles have flown,
Their gentle voices gone,
I've nothing left but old dog Tray.
Chorus.
When thoughts recall the past,
His eyes are on me cast,
I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say;
Although he cannot speak,
I'll vainly, vainly seek
A better friend than old dog Tray
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Joanna Boulter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 8:54 PM
Subject: The little dogs and all
>" ... Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me." (Lear, Act III
>Scene 6)
>
> Do any of you know how common a name Tray was for dogs in Shakespeare's
> time? Or at any other time, come to that. I don't think I've come across
> it anywhere else but attached to the dog of a friend of mine, and that was
> quite definitely because of the Shakespearean reference.
>
> A derivation of the orginal would be nice too, if anybody can hazard one.
>
> joanna
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