.. .. .. .. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing . .. .. My reading of that Shakespearean quote is that in Shakespearean times John-A-Dreams was a common name for either a ghost or a dreamy, absent-minded, impractical sort of fellow. I would translate it into (slightly) more contemporary English as something like ... Yet I, an insipid and unspirited rascal, waste away, like a ghost / a dreamer, neglecting my cause, and am dumb. Perhaps the first interpretation reads more naturally, which would give us: Yet I, an insipid and unspirited rascal, waste away, like a Will O' The Wisp, neglecting my cause, and am dumb. If you can find, say, in a local library, a volume of Shakespeare or at least Hamlet, with annotations, that might give an explanation of the reference.
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