Handsome is often used in old texts about both men and women. In this kind of context it surely just means appropriate, dignified, lusty, an equal, an adjective used as in the Homeric type of use? For example, WINE DARK sea. The adjective always appears before sea just as handsome would almost always appear before any man or woman who you thought fitting. Although that 'swift' and 'handy' has an appeal too.