Definition of "oft"

What I can do, can do no hurt to try:Since you ſet up your reſt 'gainſt remedy:He that of greateſt works is finiſher,Oft does them by the weakeſt miniſter;So holy writ in babes hath judgment ſhown,When judges have been babes.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

And how is it that they, the sons of fame,Whose inspiration seems to them to shineFrom high, they whom the nations oftest name,Must pass their days in penury or pain,Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame,And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain?

1819, George Gordon Byron, John Galt (biography), The Pophecy of Dante, Canto the Fourth, 1857, The Complete Works of Lord Byron, Volume 1, page 403

The moonlight falls the softestIn Kentucky;The summer days come oftestIn Kentucky;

1902, James H. Mulligan, In Kentucky, quoted in 2005, Wade Hall (editor), The Kentucky Anthology, page 203