Giving Quarter (Vol. viii., p. 246.).—It must be observed that the older form of the expression is "keeping quarter:"
"That every one should kill the man he caught,
To keep no quarter."—Drayton in Richardson.
Now very obvious application of the word quarter, instanced by Todd, is to signify the proper station or appointed place of any one.
"They do best who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs."—Bacon's Essays.
To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, within the limits or bounds appointed by some paramount consideration; and hence, as in the following passage from Shakspeare (where it is clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the word is used as synonymous with terms or conditions:
"Friends all but now,
In quarter and in terms like bride and groom
Divesting them for bed, and then but now
Swords out and tilting one at other's breast."