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.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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