Fwd: gale n.3 -- ? sense 1.b antedating OED?

[Joel S. Berson]

A correspondent suggests that the following two quotations, present
in Johnson's dictionary, fit sense 1.b, "Poet. and in rhetorical
language often used for: A gentle breeze."  If so, they would
antedate the OED's earliest quotation, 1728.

Joel

>Winds
>Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fann'd
> From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.
>   - Milton
>
>Fresh gales and gentle air
>   - Milton

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