> as lemmas

1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour ii. xii. sig. Dii^v As god wolde haue it, he fell in to a deade sleepe.

1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 646 As ill lucke would haue it, within two dayes after that Perdiccas was slaine in a mutinie of his men.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iii. v. 77 As good lucke [1602 God] would haue it..they conuey'd me into a bucke-basket. View more context for this quotation

1700 tr. F. P. Dalairac Polish Manuscripts: Secret Hist. John Sobieski III v. 181 As good Luck would have it, Count Forval was then with that Prince.

1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsemanship ix. 42 As ill luck would have it, the curb broke.

1805 W. Wordsworth Waggoner i. 131 As chance would have it, passing by I saw you in that jeopardy.

1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales II. 24 As good fortune would have it,..he was following in our wake.

1847 A. Combe Let. 13 June in G. Combe Life & Corr. A. Combe (1850) xxix. 393 As the gods would have it, the day was very wet.

1886 J. E. Jenkins Jobson's Enemies I. ii. 49 Now, as hap would have it, every word of the above conversation was overheard through the thin partition.

1903 Indian Rev. Oct. 610/1 As misfortune would have it, the proposition was lost.

1925 Amer. Mercury Aug. 478/1 As luck would have it, George Wharton James kept here his famous collection of Pompeian tear-jars.

1990 E. Kuzwayo Sit down & Listen 83 As fate would have it, Pulane fell in love with a young man from the far-off country of Boshothu.

2012 W. Hare Pulp Fiction to Film Noir viii. 120 His friend, as coincidence would have it, is a facial reconstructive specialist.