Antedate of 'wax' = 'speak emotionally'

[sagehen]

I've lost track of the query at the bottom of this thread. Is it merely the
application of "wax(ed)" to speech, rhetoric, writing,&c., or
the"wax(ed)"+ADV in place of the older "wax(ed)"+ADJ?   Waxing enthusiastic
(passionate, emotional, eloquent, whatever) seems to me to have been around
forever. (Our books are packed preparatory to moving, so I can't look things
up.)
IMO there has been a kind of self-conscious overuse of adverbs out of
uneasiness about their relationship to verbs & the possibility of misusing
adjectives.   Thus we get "waxing enthusiastically" about something which
seems to be saying that the enthusiasm is about the *waxing* instead of
about the *something*.
AM

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