INTRODUCTION.
"'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.'
"There is not a superfluous word. But how can Antony glide into those praises of Caesar, which he has disclaimed, but which are necessary to his purpose? The next sentence solves the question:
"'The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.'
"This leads most naturally to the thought of the discussion, which is, 'No event of Caesar's life shows guilty ambition; but many do reveal love to the people and care for the general welfare. He should, therefore, be mourned, and—the next word is not supplied by the orator, but forced from the hearts of the people—avenged! We quote a few only of the well-known words:
THE DISCUSSION.
"'The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it were a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honorable man,
So are they all, all honorable 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 honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransom did the general coffers fill.
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor hath cried Caesar 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,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?'
"The strongest argument against belief in guilty ambition on the part of Caesar and in favor of punishing his murderers is reserved by the subtle Antony for the last, and then he manages to have the people demand it of him. He proceeds very naturally and effectively from the rent robe and the bleeding body to the will of Caesar. This instrument gave the Romans each a large donation in money, and bestowed upon them collectively 'his walks, his private arbors, and 'new planted orchards' as a public park. The argument was irresistible, and needed no elaboration. If his death was avenged as a murder, the will would be valid; otherwise, it would be set aside, and his estate confiscated by the conspirators. The people, thus fired by the strongest motives of gratitude and interest themselves supply the conclusion, and Brutus had to fly for his life. The whole speech is worth study as an exhibition of almost perfect eloquence. Shakespeare meant to draw in Brutus the picture of a scholar coming before the people with fine words, and producing little more than a literary effect. In Antony he pictures the true orator in the plentitude of his power, to whom words are but servants in accomplishing his purpose of [I suggest convincing] persuading and inflaming the people. The one speech reads as if it might have been written out in the closet and memorized; the other gushes from the heart of the speaker as he watches the sea of upturned faces, adapting his words with exquisite skill to suit and swell the passions written there." (Extempore Speech, pp. 54-59.)