The speech that has these words in it is spoken by Portia
in Act IV, Scene 1 of this play. In it, she is lecturing Shylock about
mercy.
What she is telling Shylock is that mercy is not
something that can be forced (strained). Instead, it has to be given freely. She says
that when you act mercifully, you help yourself and you help the person that you are
showing mercy to. She tells Shylock that what he should strive for is not justice, but
rather mercy.
By saying these things, she is asking him not
to try to get his "pound of flesh" from Antonio.
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