Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

These lines are taken from Antony's speech in Caesar's funeral. It reflects how Antony in his clever emotional speech convinced the public and made them change their opinion. His speech came after Brutus's speech which the public liked and believed. Antony enters with Caesar’s body. Brutus explains to the crowd that Antony has obtained permission to give a funeral oration.

  Antony ascends to the pulpit while the crowd are discussing what they have heard. They now believe that Caesar was a tyrant and that Brutus did right to kill him. But they wait to hear Antony. He asks the audience to listen, for he has come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. He acknowledges Brutus’s charge that Caesar was ambitious and maintains that Brutus is “an honourable man,” but he says that Caesar was his friend.  He also remarks that the evil deeds, which men perform, continue after their death, but the good deeds, which men do, are often buried along with their dead bodies. Let that be the case with Caesar also. He adds that Caesar brought to Rome many captives, whose countrymen had to pay their ransoms, thus filling Rome’s coffers. He asks rhetorically if such accumulation of money for the people constituted ambition. Antony continues to stress the fact that Caesar sympathized with the poor: “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”. He reminds the crowd  of the day when he offered the crown to Caesar three times, and Caesar three times refused. Again, he asks aloud  aloud whether this humility can be considered  ambition. He claims that he is not trying to disprove Brutus’s words but rather to tell them what he, Antony, knows; he insists that as they all loved Caesar once, they should mourn for him now. Antony pauses to weep. The people  are touched. Then he uncovers the body for all to see. The crowd  weep and become angry.