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But being charg'd, we will be still by Land Warburton: That is, unless we be charged we will remain quiet at land, which quiet I suppose we shall keep.— Collier: ‘But’ is still frequently employed in the north of England as a preposition, equivalent to without. Several ancient instances may be found in the Coventry Mysteries, printed by the Shakespeare Society and edited by Halliwell.—Walker (Crit. iii, 307): That is, Unless we are attacked, we will remain quiet, as far as our land forces are concerned. So construe, in the lines subjoined to Chester's Love's Martyr, —‘Hearts remote, yet not asunder: Distance, and no space was seen 'Twixt the turtle and his queen: But in them it were a wonder.’ It were a wonder in any but them. Sidney, Arcadia, B. iii, p. 360, l. 8,—‘— they rang a bell, which served to call certain poor women, which ever lay in cabins not far off, to do the household services of both lodges, and never came to either but being called for.’ Two Noble Kinsmen, I, i,—‘Lend us a knee; But touch the ground for us no longer time,’ etc. i. e., ‘do but touch,’ ‘only touch.’ I notice this, simple as it may appear, because I myself mistook it for a long time.—Abbott (§ 124): That is, excepting the supposition of our being charged. [See notes on III, xi, 50.]
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1907.
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