A select glossary of English words used formerly in senses different from their present

by Richard Chenevix Trench

There with fantastic garlands did she come,

Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead-men’s-fingers call them.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, act iv. sc. 7.

Desdemona [of Iago]: Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?—Id., Othello, act ii. sc. 1.

But that we know thee, Wyatt, to be true,

Thy overboldness should be paid with death;

But cease, for fear your liberal tongue offend.

Webster, The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt.