Shakespeare ...

Our Will used the limerick form several times in his plays. These are not limericks in the "traditional" sense, but he uses the form for various songs. The one most often quoted is from Othello Act 2:

And let me the canakin clink, clink;
And let me the canakin clink.
A soldier's a man;
A life's but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.

It strikes me that this has an Omar Khayyam feel about it. It reminds me of, for example, quatrain 37, which coincidentally has a similar metre to a limerick:

Ah, fill the cup - what boots it to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet:
Unborn tomorrow, and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet!

Two other songs in limerick form come from Hamlet Act 4, sung by Ophelia, after going mad and before committing suicide. One intriguing aspect of this is that the songs are about a girl presumably being deflowered. In her mad scene Ophelia gives away flowers including rue and wormwood, both of which were used in abortions, implying that Hamlet was responsible.

By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't,
if they come to't;
By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done,
by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

A final thought to bring the reader back to earth:

Our Will had a way with a quill
We go to his plays even still
To follow the plot
Demands quite a lot
But his quill still gives us a thrill