ppl. a.
1. Following a good rule of life and behavior; controlled by reason.
c. 1410. Lantern of Light, 10. Whanne þi neiȝbour is wise, wel gouerned.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. vii. 179. Deuout and weel gouerned pilgrimes.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. v. 70. Verona brags of him, To be a vertuous and well gouern’d youth.
1598. F. Meres, Pallad. Tamia, 281 b. A man of vertuous disposition … and wel gouerned cariage.
1614. Bp. Hall, Contemp., O. T., V. vi. 137. How highly God doth esteeme a well gouerned zeale.
1634. Milton, Comus, 705. And that which is not good, is not delicious To a well-govern’d and wise appetite.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. vii. Yes, but … a well-governed mind can be soured sitting!
2. Of a state or society of men: Ruled by a good government.
1570. Homilies, II. Disobed. & Rebellion, IV. (1574), 590. In anye well gouerned common wealth, where good lawes are in force.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxv. (1674), 27. The rewards … which were practised in well-governed Common-wealths.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. x. 413. The whole Empire was a well-governed affectionate family.
1816. Coleridge, Lay Serm., i. (1852), 22. By the happy organisation of a well-governed society.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 395. If you go away from well-governed states to … Thessaly, where there is great disorder and licence.
