1 We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
2 Now, by my hood, a gentle, and no Jew.
3 Tell gentle Jessica I will not fail her, speak it privately.
4 I would not change this hue, Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen.
5 The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.
6 My Lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady, I wish you all the joy that you can wish; For I am sure you can wish none from me.
7 And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano, For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk, In lieu of this, last night did lie with me.
8 If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven, It will be for his gentle daughter's sake; And never dare misfortune cross her foot, Unless she do it under this excuse, That she is issue to a faithless Jew.
9 In such a night as this, When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, And they did make no noise, in such a night, Troilus methinks mounted the Trojan walls, And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents Where Cressid lay that night.
10 But the full sum of me Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd; Happy in this, she is not yet so old But she may learn; happier than this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn; Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed, As from her lord, her governor, her king.