but (the foll. uses are now obs. or archaic)
1.
after negative sentences containing a comparison:
=than
MND. I. ii. 84
“they would have no more
discretion but to hang us,”
Tw.N. I. iv. 13
“Thou know'st no less
but all.”
2.
=only
Tp. I. ii. 169
“Would I might But ever
see that man!,”
Err. IV. i. 33
“he . . . stays but for
it,”
Oth. IV. i. 88
“I say, but mark his
gesture”
; used redundantly with “only,”
2H4 I. i. 192, 3H6 IV. ii. 25, Mac. V. vii. 69 [viii. 40].
3.
“but now,” just now,
only this moment
Mer.V. III. ii. 170
“even now, but
now,”
Ven. 497
“But now I liv'd”
; so Tp. iii.
ii. 130
“but while-ere,”
Ven. 1026
“but late.”
4.
= anything but,
otherwise than
Tp. I. ii. 119
“I should sin To think
but nobly of my grandmother”
; so after “cannot”
MND. III. ii. 56
“It cannot be but thou
hast murder'd him.”
5.
= if . . . not,
unless, except
MND. III. ii. 150
“Can you not hate me, .
. . But you must join in souls to mock
me too?,”
Cym. V. v. 41
“And, but she spoke it
dying, I would not Believe her
lips”
;
Tp. I. ii. 91
“but by being so
retir'd,”
Ant. IV. x. 10 [xi. 1] “But being charg'd” (=
if we are not charged);
Gent. I. i. 86
“It shall go hard but
I'll prove it,”
Mer.V. II. vi. 52
“Beshrew me, but I love
her heartily”
; similarly “but that”
Tp. I. ii. 4.
6.
= who, which, or that
. . . not (freq.)
1H6 I. ii. 5
“What towns of any
moment but we have?,”
R3 I. III. 186 “No man
but prophesied revenge for it.”
7.
= that . . . not,
esp. after verbs of thinking, doubting, &c.
Tp. III. i. 44, MND. III. ii. 298
(“but that”),
1H4 IV. iii. 38, Oth. III. iii. 225.
8.
=that, after
negatived verb of denying Ado I. iii.
33, All'sW. V. iii. 168.
