Sentence:  But you, my <WSD>brace</WSD> of lords, were I so minded, / I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, / And justify you traitors 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A pair, a couple; originally used of dogs, and later of animals generally and then other things, but rarely human persons. (The plural in this sense is unchanged.) In British use (as "plural"), this is a particularly common reference to game birds.