A, a remnant of Anglosaxon suffixes, serving as an expletive void of sense to fill up the metre: “and merrily hent the stile-a,” Wint. IV, 3, 133. “your sad tires in a mile-a,” Wint. IV, 3, 133 “my dainty duck, my dear-a,” IV, 4, 324. “of the newest and finest wear-a,” IV, 4, 324 “that doth utter all men's ware-a,” IV, 4, 324 “and a merry heart lives long-a,” H4B V, 3, 50. “down, down, adown-a,” Wiv. I, 4, 44. “you must sing adown, adown, an you call him adown-a,” Hml. IV, 5, 170. “to contract, O the time, for-a my behove, O, methought, there-a was nothing-a meet,” Hml. V, 1, 71 (reading of Qq; Ff O me thought there was nothing meet). “leave thy drink and thy whore, and keep in a door,” Lr. I, 4, 138 (M. Edd. in-a-door). It is needless to speak of the gibberish of Dr. Caius, who likes to prolong the words by appending an a, f. i. Wiv. I, 4, 47. 85 etc.