Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Quote the speech made by Mark Antony at Caesar's funeral in Julius Caesar.

excerpts of Antony's lines from his speech:




You gentle Romans -




Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;




I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.




The evil that men do lives after them;




The good is oft interred with their bones;




So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus




Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:




If it were so, it was a grievous fault,




And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.




Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—




For Brutus is an honourable man;




So are they all, all honourable men—




Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.




He was my friend, faithful and just to me;




But Brutus says he was ambitious;




And Brutus is an honourable man.




He hath brought many captives home to Rome




Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;




Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?




When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:




Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:




Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;




And Brutus is an honourable man.




You all did see that on the Lupercal




I thrice presented him a kingly crown,




Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?




Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;




And, sure, he is an honourable man.




I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,




But here I am to speak what I do know.




You all did love him once, not without cause:




What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?




O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,




And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;




My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,




And I must pause till it come back to me




But yesterday the word of Caesar might




Have stood against the world; now lies he there,




And none so poor to do him reverence.




O masters, if I were disposed to stir




Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,




I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,




Who, you all know, are honourable men:




I will not do them wrong; I rather choose




To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,




Than I will wrong such honourable men.




But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;




I found it in his closet, 'tis his will:




Let but the commons hear this testament—




Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—




And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds




And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,




Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,




And, dying, mention it within their wills,




Bequeathing it as a rich legacy




Unto their issue.




*** 




I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:




I am no orator, as Brutus is;




But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,




That love my friend; and that they know full well




That gave me public leave to speak of him:




For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,




Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,




To stir men's blood; I only speak right on;




I tell you that which you yourselves do know;



***



Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.




To every Roman citizen he gives,




To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.




 ***




Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,




His private arbours and new-planted orchards,




On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,




And to your heirs for ever—common pleasures,




To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.




Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?




***




Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,




Take thou what course thou wilt!

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