Thanks, Tina, that does at least indicate that the name was still in use
then.
I wonder if anyone can come up with an earlier example than Shakespeare's?
If not, we may be left wondering whether WS made it up and has given us the
first-ever reference.
joanna
> 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
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.myspace.com/fat_man_dancing
> ----- 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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