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Examples
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They are not like "the lord" the hind "wishes" to be in the opening poem who has ample leisure time to "lie a-bed," and Baillie implies with her very positive rendering of the hard-working hind that this lazy, lordly status is not that desirable.
'[S]hak[ing] the dwellings of the great': Liberation in Joanna Baillies Poems (1790) 2008
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We can only assume that, given the hour, Head Censor Forsyth was still a-bed and that your post slipped through.
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The action in both movies basically unfolds between midnight and 5 A.M., when decent folk should be a-bed.
VinceKeenan.com 2007
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After this talk Brynhild lay a-bed, and tidings were brought to King
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And when the morrow dawned, the King returned with his suite from hunting and sat awhile in his chair of estate; after which he sent the Emirs about their business and went up to his palace, where he found his two wives lying a-bed and both exceeding sick and weak.
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It was amazing; while I lay a-bed I had the lines a-roaring through my head like locusts on the wing.
Archive 2008-07-01 Ivan Donn Carswell 2008
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It was amazing; while I lay a-bed I had the lines a-roaring through my head like locusts on the wing.
The Beer Was Cold Enough (rev) Ivan Donn Carswell 2008
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We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day...
Henry V and St Crispins Day de Brantigny........................ 2007
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We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day...
Archive 2007-10-21 de Brantigny........................ 2007
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Now it was hard to find the right time to speak, for in the mornings he was a-bed, and in the evenings over his bottle, where no gentleman chooses to be disturbed.
Castle Rackrent 2006
hernesheir commented on the word a-bed
"And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's Henry V
January 16, 2010