The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as…

The speech comes in the trial scene of The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene 1. Shylock is before the Duke to claim the pound of Antonio’s flesh promised in their bond. Portia, disguised as Balthazar, a young doctor of laws, takes her place and has Antonio confess the bond. “Then must the Jew be merciful,” she says. Shylock retorts: “On what compulsion must I? tell me that.” Her answer is this speech: mercy cannot be forced; it falls like rain, blesses giver and taker, and is “an attribute to God himself”, since in the course of justice “none of us Should see salvation”.

Shylock refuses (“My deeds upon my head! I crave the law”), and Portia turns the bond against him: he may take his flesh, but not one drop of blood.

Shakespeare wrote the play around 1596 or 1597, and it was printed in 1600. “Strained” means constrained: mercy cannot be exacted. Generations of schoolchildren have learnt it by heart, and its opening line is often quoted alone.

The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene 1 (Portia), 1597

Checked word for word in the work itself.

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