forgive vs mitigate

forgive

verb
  • To pardon; to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment, retribution, or compensation. 

  • To accord forgiveness. 

mitigate

verb
  • To downplay. 

  • To reduce, lessen, or decrease; to make less severe or easier to bear. 

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