Definition of "magnanimous"

She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, […]

c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, [Act II, scene ii]

First, our friendship began at that early time when alone it is unalloyed and sincere; secondly"—and here, in spite of her vivacity, Marie's voice trembled—"you are associated with the only being in the world I ever really loved; and thirdly, I have I behaved exceedingly ill to you, and, consequently, feel it quite magnanimous not to hate you, which is the established rule on such occasions.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 206

DOOLITTLE [sad but magnanimous] They played you off very cunning, Eliza, them two sportsmen.

1912, George Bernard Shaw, “Act V”, in Pygmalion‎

I felt vaguely he was a sneak, and remained quite unmollified by advances on his side, which, in a boy's barbarous fashion, unless it suited me to be magnanimous, I haughtily ignored.

1923, Walter de la Mare, Seaton's Aunt