Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears is the first line of a famous and often-quoted speech by Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. It literally means "Friends, Romans, fellow citizens, listen to me". It is from Act III, scene ii, lines 73-252. The speech is set in the Forum in Rome.

At this point in the play, the conspirators have murdered Julius Caesar. Against Cassius' advice, Brutus has given Antony permission to give Caesar's funeral oration provided only praise is said of the conspirators. Before Antony's speech, Brutus gives a speech to the plebeians explaining just how he slew his good friend for the good of Rome. As Antony's speech begins the plebs are completely on the conspiritors' side. Antony follows Brutus' instructions to the letter, but through a subtle shift of emphasis, most notably a continuing repetition of the word "honorable", he manipulates the crowd, provoking their rage against the assassins and their grief for the lost Caesar. In so doing, he turns the tide of public opinion against Brutus, Cassius, and their compatriots and paves the way for the conspirators' defeat at the close of the play.

The speech is as follows:

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.