oft (adv.) Old form(s): ofte
often
1H4 III.i.170[Mortimer to Hotspur, of crossing Glendower] do not use it oft, let me entreat you
1H4 III.i.7[Glendower to Hotspur] sit--good cousin Hotspur-- / For by that name as oft as Lancaster doth speak of you / His cheek looks pale
1H4 III.ii.24[Prince Hal to Henry] many tales devised, / Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear
1H4 III.iii.83[Hostess to all, of Falstaff] I have heard the Prince tell him I know not how oft, that that ring was copper
1H6 I.iv.3[Boy to Master Gunner, of the English] I ... oft have shot at them
2H4 II.ii.104[Poins to Prince Henry, reading Falstaff's letter] as oft as he has occasion to name himself
2H6 I.i.183[Salisbury to York and Warwick] Oft have I seen the haughty Cardinal
2H6 II.i.92[Wife to all, of Simpcox being called to St Alban's shrine] Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft / Myself have heard a voice to call him so
2H6 II.iv.89[Duchess to Stanley] Death, at whose name I oft have been afeard
2H6 III.ii.161[Warwick to all] Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost / Of ashy semblance
2H6 IV.i.136[Suffolk to all] Great men oft die by vile Besonians
2H6 IV.iv.1[Queen to herself] Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind
2H6 IV.vii.75[Say to rebels] Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck / Those that I never saw, and struck them dead
2H6 V.i.151[Richard to all] Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur / Run back and bite, because he was withheld
2H6 V.ii.54[Young Clifford alone] beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims
3H6 I.iv.11[York to all] Three times did Richard make a lane to me ... / And full as oft came Edward to my side
3H6 I.iv.128[York to Queen] 'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud
3H6 II.i.148[Richard to and of Warwick] Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit
3H6 V.ii.20[Warwick alone] The wrinkles in my brows, now filled with blood, / Were likened oft to kingly sepulchres
AC III.vi.18[Caesar to Agrippa and Maecenas, of Cleopatra] She ... / That day appeared, and oft before gave audience
AC III.xiii.82.2[Cleopatra to Thidias, of her hand] Your Caesar's father oft ... / Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place
AC IV.xiv.139[Antony to his soldiers] I have led you oft
AW I.i.103[Helena to herself] full oft we see / Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly
AW I.i.212[Helena alone] Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
AW I.ii.56[King to all, of Bertram's father] his good melancholy oft began / On the catastrophe and heel of pastime
AW II.i.137[Helena to King] He that of greatest works is finisher / Oft does them by the weakest minister
AW II.i.142[Helena to King] Oft expectation fails, and most oft there / Where most it promises, and oft it hits / Where hope is coldest and despair most fits
AW II.iii.138[King to Bertram, of honour] on every grave / A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb / Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
AW III.ii.122[Helena alone] Whence honour but of danger wins a scar, / As oft it loses all
AW V.iii.63[King to Bertram] Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, / Destroy our friends and after weep their dust
AW V.iii.82[King to Bertram, of a ring] mine eye, / While I was speaking, oft was fastened to't
AYL II.ii.8[Second Lord to Duke Frederick] the roynish clown at whom so oft / Your grace was wont to laugh is also missing
AYL III.iv.42[Corin to Rosalind as Ganymede and Celia as Aliena] you have oft inquired / After the shepherd that complained of love
AYL III.v.106[Silvius to Phebe, of Rosalind as Ganymede] I have met him oft
AYL IV.iii.135[Celia as Aliena to Oliver, of Orlando] Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?
AYL V.iv.80[Jaques to Touchstone, of a nobleman] how oft did you say his beard was not well cut?
CE I.ii.19[Antipholus of Syracuse to First Merchant, of Dromio of Syracuse] A trusty villain, sir, that very oft, / ... Lightens my humour with his merry jests
CE V.i.56[Adriana to Abbess, of Antipholus of Ephesus] some love that drew him oft from home
Cor II.ii.69.2[Coriolanus to all] Yet oft, / When blows have made me stay, I fled from words
Cor IV.i.24[Coriolanus to Cominius] thou hast oft beheld / Heart-hardening spectacles
Cym I.vi.14[Queen to Cornelius] our great king himself doth woo me oft / For my confections
Cym II.iii.67[Cloten alone] 'Tis gold / Which buys admittance--oft it doth
Cym II.iv.162[Posthumus to Iachimo, of Innogen] Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained / And prayed me oft forbearance
Cym III.iii.52[Belarius to Guiderius and Arviragus, of goings-on at court] hath as oft a sland'rous epitaph / As record of fair act
Cym III.iii.65[Belarius to Guiderius and Arviragus] My fault being nothing--as I have told you oft
Cym IV.ii.112[Belarius to Arviragus] the defect of judgement / Is oft the cause of fear
Cym V.v.249[Cornelius to Cymbeline] The queen, sir, very oft importuned me / To temper poisons for her
E3 I.i.112[King Edward to Lorraine] I shall be scarred / As oft as I dispose myself to rest / Until my colours be displayed in France
H5 Epil.chorus.13[Chorus, of another play] Which oft our stage hath shown
H5 IV.i.243[King Henry to himself, of ceremony] What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, / But poisoned flattery
H5 V.ii.356[Queen Isabel to all] fell jealousy, / Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage
H8 I.ii.160[Surveyor to King Henry] a holy monk, ‘that oft’, says he, / ‘Hath sent to me’
H8 I.ii.81[Wolsey to King Henry] What we oft do best, / By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is / Not ours, or not allowed
H8 II.iv.164[King Henry to Wolsey] You ever / Have wished the sleeping of this business, never desired / It to be stirred, but oft have hindered, oft, / The passages made toward it
Ham I.i.139[Horatio to Ghost] you spirits oft walk in death
Ham I.iii.40[Laertes to Ophelia] The canker galls the infants of the spring / Too oft before their buttons be disclosed
Ham I.iii.72[Polonius to Laertes] the apparel oft proclaims the man
Ham I.iii.76[Polonius to Laertes] For loan oft loses both itself and friend
Ham I.iii.91[Polonius to Ophelia, of Hamlet] 'Tis told me he hath very oft of late / Given private time to you
Ham I.iv.23[Hamlet to Horatio] So oft it chances in particular men
Ham II.i.105[Polonius to Ophelia] This is the very ecstasy of love, / Whose violent property fordoes itself ... / As oft as any passion under heaven
Ham III.i.46[Polonius to Claudius] We are oft to blame in this ... that with devotion's visage / And pious action we do sugar o'er / The devil himself
Ham III.ii.197[First Player as King to his Queen] what we do determine oft we break
Ham III.iii.59[Claudius alone] oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself / Buys out the law
Ham V.i.186[Hamlet to Horatio, of Yorick's skull] Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft
JC III.i.116.2[Cassius to all, of future retellings of Caesar's murder] So oft as that shall be, / So often shall the knot of us be called / The men that gave their country liberty
JC III.ii.77[Antony to all] The evil that men do lives after them, / The good is oft interred with their bones
KJ IV.ii.204[King John to Hubert] Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death?
KJ IV.ii.219[King John to Hubert] How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds / Make deeds ill done!
KL I.ii.72[Edmund to Gloucester, of Edgar] I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect age and fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the son
KL I.iv.343[Albany to Gonerill] Striving to better, oft we mar what's well
KL II.ii.72[disguised Kent to Cornwall, of Oswald] Such smiling rogues as these, / Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain
KL III.vi.58[disguised Kent to Lear] where is the patience now / That you so oft have boasted to retain?
KL IV.i.19[Gloucester to Old Man] Full oft 'tis seen / Our means secure us, and our mere defects / Prove our commodities
KL V.iii.72.1[Regan to Gonerill] Jesters do oft prove prophets
LC.102[of the man] if men moved him, was he such a storm / As oft twixt May and April is to see
LC.15[of the woman] Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne
LLL V.ii.549[Costard as Pompey, of Pompey] oft in field, with targe and shield
LLL V.ii.830[Rosaline to Berowne] Oft have I heard of you
Luc.131[] Despair to gain doth traffic oft for gaining
Luc.146[] Honour for wealth; and oft that wealth doth cost / The death of all, and all together lost
Luc.174[] honest fear, bewitched with lust's foul charm, / Doth too too oft betake him to retire
Luc.38[] For by our ears our hearts oft tainted be
Luc.70[of two colours] oft they interchange each other's seat
MA II.iii.130[Claudio to Leonato and Don Pedro, quoting Beatrice talking about Benedick] I ... that have so oft encountered him with scorn
MM I.iv.78[Lucio to Isabella] Our doubts are traitors / And make us lose the good we oft might win
MM II.i.254[Escalus to Elbow, of his being questioned so much about his length of service] they do you wrong to put you so oft upon't
MM II.i.270[Escalus to Justice] Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so
MM II.iv.117[Isabella to Angelo] it oft falls out / To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean
MM III.i.18[disguised Duke to Claudio] Thy best of rest is sleep, / And that thou oft provok'st
MM IV.i.14[disguised Duke to Mariana] music oft hath such a charm / To make bad good
MM IV.ii.147[Provost to disguised Duke, of Barnardine] We have very oft awaked him
MND I.i.239[Helena alone] therefore is love said to be a child / Because in choice he is so oft beguiled
MND III.ii.389[Oberon to Puck] I with the morning's love have oft made sport
MV I.i.144[Bassanio to Antonio, of finding lost arrows] by adventuring both / I oft found both
MV III.iii.22[Antonio to Solanio, of Shylock] I oft delivered from his forfeitures / Many
Oth I.iii.127[Othello to all, of Desdemona] Her father loved me, oft invited me
Oth I.iii.7[Second Senator to all] in these cases where the aim reports / 'Tis oft with difference
Oth II.i.101[Iago to Cassio, of Emilia] would she give you so much of her lips / As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, / You'd have enough
Oth II.i.170[Iago to himself, as if to Cassio] it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft
Oth II.iii.262[Iago to Cassio] Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.
Oth III.iii.99[Othello to Iago, of Cassio going between Othello and Desdemona] [he] went between us very oft
Oth IV.i.17[Iago to Othello, of honour] They have it very oft that have it not
Oth IV.i.85[Iago to Othello, of Cassio] I will make him tell the tale anew, / Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when / He hath, and is again, to cope your wife
Per Chorus.IV.12[Gower alone] That monster envy, oft the wrack / Of earned praise
Per V.i.159[Marina to Pericles, of a report of her birth] As my good nurse Lychorida hath oft / Delivered weeping
Per V.iii.53.1[Pericles to Thaisa, of Helicanus] I have named him oft
PP.18.41[] Have you not heard it said full oft, / A woman's nay doth stand for nought?
R3 I.iii.105[Queen Elizabeth to Richard] I will acquaint his majesty / Of those gross taunts that oft I have endured
R3 II.ii.3[Girl to Duchess of York] Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast
R3 III.i.55[Richard to Cardinal Bourchier] Oft have I heard of sanctuary men, / But sanctuary children never till now
RJ I.iv.75[Mercutio to all, of ladies' lips] Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues
RJ II.iii.77[Romeo to Friar Laurence] Thou chidst me oft for loving Rosaline
RJ V.iii.121[Friar Laurence to himself] How oft tonight / Have my old feet stumbled at graves!
RJ V.iii.88[Romeo alone] How oft when men are at the point of death / Have they been merry!
Sonn.128.1[] How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st
Sonn.14.8[] say with Princes if it shall go well, / By oft predict that I in heaven find [i.e. common signs] [debated reading]
Sonn.142.7[] sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine
Sonn.77.13[] [of the contemplative activities referred to] These offices, so oft as thou wilt look, / Shall profit thee
Sonn.78.1[] So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
TC III.ii.71[Cressida to Troilus] to fear the worst oft cures the worst
TC III.iii.20[Calchas to Agamemnon] Oft have you - often have you thanks therefore - / Desired my Cressid in right great exchange
TC III.iii.83[Achilles to Ulysses] >Prizes of accident as oft as merit
TC IV.iv.136[Troilus to Diomedes] This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head
TC IV.v.183[Nestor to Hector] I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft
TG II.iv.101[Silvia to Valentine, of Proteus] His worth is warrant for his welcome hither, / If this be he you oft have wished to hear from
TG II.vi.15[Proteus alone, of Julia] Fie, fie, unreverend tongue, to call her bad / Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferred
TG V.iv.104[Julia to Proteus] How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root!
Tim IV.iii.336[Titus to Apemantus] oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner
Tit IV.i.109[Marcus to Young Lucius, of fighting] Thy father hath full oft / For his ungrateful country done the like
Tit IV.i.18[Young Lucius to Marcus] I have heard my grandsire say full oft / Extremity of griefs would make men mad
Tit V.i.135[Aaron to all] Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves
Tit V.ii.158[Titus to Lords, of catching Chiron and Demetrius] Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour
TN I.ii.50[Viola to Cesario] nature with a beauteous wall / Doth oft close in pollution
TN I.v.30[Feste to himself, of wit] Those wits that think they have thee do very oft prove / fools
TN III.i.122[Viola as Cesario to Olivia] 'tis a vulgar proof / That very oft we pity enemies
TN III.i.39[Feste to Viola as Cesario] the fool should be as oft with your master as with my mistress
TN III.iii.15[Sebastian to Antonio] I can no other answer make but thanks, / And thanks. And ever oft good turns / Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay
TN III.iv.176[Sir Toby to Sir Andrew] it comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off
TN III.iv.3[Olivia to herself, of Viola as Cesario] youth is bought more oft than begged or borrowed
TN III.iv.32[Olivia to Malvolio] Why dost thou ... kiss thy hand so oft?
TNK V.iii.103.1[Emilia to herself] our reasons are not prophets / When oft our fancies are
TS II.i.53[Petruchio to Baptista] to make mine eye the witness / Of that report which I so oft have heard
Ven.1068[] For oft the eye mistakes, the brain being troubled
Ven.567[] Things out of hope are compassed oft with vent'ring
WT I.ii.158[Leontes to Hermione] my dagger muzzled, / Lest it should bite its master and so prove, / As ornaments oft does, too dangerous
WT I.ii.262[Camillo to Leontes] if ever fearful / To do a thing where I the issue doubted ... 'twas a fear / Which oft infects the wisest
WT IV.iv.797[Clown to Shepherd, of Autolycus] though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold
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