This question apparently came up in a thread on SHAKSPER in September, 2005
("Lear's Little Dogs"). I've cut the bits pertinent to Joanna's original
question, and the follow-up here. The URL lead into the discussion (follow
the thread from there) is:
http://www.shaksper.net/archives/2005/1456.html
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A once-popular Stephen Foster song was entitled "Old Dog Tray." I
gather that the name was proverbial for a loyal canine: (or one who is
normally loyal); but I don't know whether this originates with
Shakespeare or precedes him.
--Charles Weinstein
[I can't find the lyrics online, but it might be worth hunting up Stephen
Foster's once-famous minstrel show song "Old Dog Trey". Foster was
literate enough to have alluded, but Trey seems to have been a
long-standing dog name (unless the allusion is the joke: minstrel
numbers are often hard to read), which survived in country and folk
parle after Foster (because of?) also.
-- Thomas Bishop
The name Trey, as far as I know, simply means "third born" (at least,
it's a common nickname for a third child). "Blanche," I always assumed,
meant a white dog. I guess there might be a bit of an allusion (or more
of a parallel) to the three daughters, but I think you are getting
pretty carried away with "Trey" becoming "betray" etc.
-- David Levine
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Robin
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