brave adj. (neither sense is pre-Eliz.)
1.
finely
arrayed; (hence) showy, splendid
Shr. Ind. i. 40
“brave
attendants,”
Sonn. xv. 8
“wear their brave state
out of memory,”
Pilgr. xii. 4 [160] “Youth like summer brave, age
like winter bare.”
2.
very freq. used as an
epithet of praise of persons and things: excellent,
capital, fine Ado.
V. iv. 131
“brave
punishments,”
AYL. III. iv. 41
“that's a brave man! he
writes brave verses, speaks brave words,
swears brave oaths,”
1H4 IV. i. 7
“a braver place In my
heart's love”
; (ironically) Ham. II. ii.
619.
