[To this it may be added, that Dub-a-dub is found in Halliwell's Arch. Gloss. with the definition, "To beat a drum; also, the blow on the drum. 'The dub-a-dub of honour.' Woman is a weathercock, p. 21., there used metaphorically." Mr. Halliwell might also have cited the nursery rhyme:
"Sing rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub.">[
Quotations.—
1. "In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke."
Quoted in Much Ado about Nothing, Act I. Sc. 1.
Mr. Knight (Library Edition, ii. 379.) says this line is from Hieronymo, but gives no reference, and I have not found it. In a sonnet by Thomas Watson (A.D. 1560-91) occurs the line (see Ellis's Specimens)—
"In time the bull is brought to bear the yoke."
Whence did Shakspeare quote the line?
2. "Nature's mother-wit." This phrase is found in Dryden's "Ode to St. Cecilia," and also in Spenser, Faerie Queene, book iv. canto x. verse 21. Where does it first occur?
3. "The divine chit-chat of Cowper." Query, Who first designated the "Task" thus? Charles Lamb uses the phrase as a quotation. (See Final Memorials of Charles Lamb, i. 72.)