As he does this, the crowd begins to turn against the conspirators.Īntony then teases the crowd with Caesar's will, which they beg him to read, but he refuses.
He denies that Caesar wanted to make himself king, for there were many who witnessed the latter's denying the crown three times.Īs Antony reflects on Caesar's death and the injustice that nobody will be blamed for it, he becomes overwhelmed with emotion and deliberately pauses ("My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, / And I must pause till it come back to me"). He begins by carefully rebutting the notion that his friend, Caesar, deserved to die because he was ambitious, instead claiming that his actions were for the good of the Roman people, whom he cared for deeply ("When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff"). Throughout his speech, Antony calls the conspirators "honourable men" – his implied sarcasm becoming increasingly obvious. Antony has been allowed by Brutus and the other conspirators to make a funeral oration for Caesar on condition that he will not blame them for Caesar's death however, while Antony's speech outwardly begins by justifying the actions of Brutus and the assassins ("I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him"), Antony uses rhetoric and genuine reminders to ultimately portray Caesar in such a positive light that the crowd is enraged against the conspirators.
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