He claims that if he were as eloquent as Brutus, he could give a voice to each of Caesar's wounds (". In response to the passion of the crowd, Antony denies that he is trying to agitate them ("I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts"), and he contrasts Brutus, "an orator", with himself, "a plain, blunt man", implying that Brutus has manipulated them through deceitful rhetoric. Instead of reading the will immediately, however, he focuses the crowd's attention on Caesar's body, pointing out his wounds and stressing the conspirators' betrayal of a man who trusted them, in particular the betrayal of Brutus ("Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!"). The crowd, increasingly agitated, calls the conspirators "traitors" and demands that Antony read out the will. Antony tells the crowd to "have patience" and expresses his feeling that he will "wrong the honourable men / Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar" if he is to read the will. As he does this, the crowd begins to turn against the conspirators.Īntony then teases the crowd with Caesar's will, which they beg him to read, but he refuses. He denies that Caesar wanted to make himself king, for there were many who witnessed the latter's denying the crown three times.Īs Antony reflects on Caesar's death and the injustice that nobody will be blamed for it, he becomes overwhelmed with emotion and deliberately pauses ("My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, / And I must pause till it come back to me"). He begins by carefully rebutting the notion that his friend, Caesar, deserved to die because he was ambitious, instead claiming that his actions were for the good of the Roman people, whom he cared for deeply ("When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff"). Throughout his speech, Antony calls the conspirators "honourable men" – his implied sarcasm becoming increasingly obvious. Please give me a moment to mourn him.Antony has been allowed by Brutus and the other conspirators to make a funeral oration for Caesar on condition that he will not blame them for Caesar's death however, while Antony's speech outwardly begins by justifying the actions of Brutus and the assassins ("I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him"), Antony uses rhetoric and genuine reminders to ultimately portray Caesar in such a positive light that the crowd is enraged against the conspirators. You loved Caesar before with good reason and cause, so what prevents you from mourning him now? Why have men lost their reason? I feel as though my heart is on the coffin with Caesar. I am not here to contradict Brutus, but I just wanted to tell you what I know.
Does this seem like ambition to you?!īut, Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man. On Lupercal, I offered him the crown thrice, and he refused it each time. Caesar filled Rome's coffers, and cared for the poor, and this is ambition?! But, Brutus says he was, and Brutus is an honourable man. To me, he was the best friend I could have hoped for- but Brutus says that he was ambitious, and Brutus is honourable. But, Brutus and the rest, they are all honourable man, so I come to speak about Caesar. Brutus told you that Caesar was ambitious, and Caesar paid dearly for this fault, by Brutus and his men. The good that people do is usually buried and forgotten with them and only their evil is remembered. I am here only to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
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