THIRD CITIZEN. Let him be Cæsar.

FOURTH CITIZEN.

Shall be crowned in Brutus.

Cæsar's better parts

FIRST CITIZEN. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and clamors.

BRUTUS. My countrymen,

SECOND CITIZEN.

Peace, silence! Brutus speaks.

FIRST CITIZEN. Peace, ho!

BRUTUS. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, And for my sake stay here with Antony.

Do grace to Cæsar's corpse,2 and grace his speech Tending to Cæsar's glories, which Mark Antony, By our permission, is allowed to make.

3

I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

[He retires.

FIRST CITIZEN. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark An

tony.

THIRD CITIZEN. Let him go up into the public chair; We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up. ANTONY. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you.

7

[Goes up.

FOURTH CITIZEN. What does he say of Brutus?
He says, for Brutus' sake,

THIRD CITIZEN.

He finds himself beholding to us all.

1 do grace, show respect.

2 corpse.

3 depart.

See Glossary.

What is the mood?

4 save I alone is a nominative absolute or independent = I alone saved or excepted.

6 the public chair, the rostrum (or, as Shakespeare calls it, the "pulpit ") from which Brutus had spoken.

7 I am beholding to you: that is, I am indebted to you. The mod

5 spoke. Give the modern form ern form of "beholding" is be

6

of this participle.

holden.

FOURTH CITIZEN. 'Twere best he speak no harm of

Brutus here.

FIRST CITIZEN. This Cæsar was a tyrant.

THIRD CITIZEN.

Nay, that's certain :

We're blessed that Rome is rid of him.

SECOND CITIZEN. Peace! let us hear what Antony can

Peace, ho! let us hear him.

ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your

ears: 1

I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,

3

The good is oft interréd with their bones;
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault-
And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, —
For Brutus is an honorable man;5

So are they all, all honorable men,—
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;

1 lend me your ears. What is 5 honorable man. the figure? (Def. 8.) Express in

plain terms.

Antony re

peats this phrase again and again

with consummate skill till he

makes it plain that he is sneering

at Brutus and his friends. This is the figure called irony, saying a thing, but meaning the opposite.

And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers1 fill:
Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal 2
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 honorable 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 coffin3 there with Cæsar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

4

FIRST CITIZEN. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

SECOND CITIZEN. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Cæsar has had great wrong.5

THIRD CITIZEN.

Has he, masters? I fear there will a worse come in his place.

1 the general coffers, the state treasury.

2 the Lupercal, the festival held on Feb. 15, in honor of Luper'cus, a Roman god.

3

my heart, etc. What figure? (See Def. 9.)

See Glossary.

4 Methinks.

5 If thou

wrong. What kind of sentence grammatically?

FOURTH CITIZEN. Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown;

Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

FIRST CITIZEN. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

SECOND CITIZEN. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

THIRD CITIZEN. There's not a nobler man in Rome

than Antony.

FOURTH CITIZEN. Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

ANTONY. But yesterday the word of Cæsar might Have stood against the world; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence.1

2

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 honorable men.
I will not do them wrong: I rather choose
To wrong the dead,3 to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men.
But here's a parchment with the seal of Cæsar-
I found it in his closet-'tis his will:

Let but the commons1 hear this testament 5
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read 6),
And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,

1 so poor to do him reverence, so low as to be able to look up to him. What

2 if I were disposed. does Antony pretend not to want to do, at the very time that he is doing it?

And dip their napkins1 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.2

FOURTH CITIZEN. We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark
Antony.

CITIZENS. The will, the will! we will hear Cæsar's
will.

ANTONY. Have patience, gentle friends; I must not
read it:

It is not meet you know how Cæsar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
For, if you should, oh, what would come of it!
FOURTH CITIZEN. Read the will! we'll hear it, An-

tony;

You shall read us the will! Cæsar's will!

ANTONY. Will you be patient?

awhile?

Will you stay

I have o'ershot myself,3 to tell you of it.

I fear I wrong the honorable men

Whose daggers have stabbed Cæsar; I do fear it. FOURTH CITIZEN. They were traitors! Honorable men! CITIZENS. The will! the testament!

SECOND CITIZEN. They were villains, murderers. The will! Read the will!

1 napkins, handkerchiefs.

2 issue.

Give a synonym.

3 I have o'ershot myself. press in your own language..

Ex