be merciful vs forbear

be merciful

forbear

verb
  • To control oneself when provoked. 

  • To refuse; to decline; to withsay; to unheed. 

  • To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from. 

  • To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay. 

How often have the words be merciful and forbear occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )