Peace! silence! Brutus speaks.

_1 Cit._ Peace, ho!

_Bru._ Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech 60
Tending to Caesar 's glories; which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allow'd to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. [_Exit_]

_1 Cit._ Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.

_3 Cit._ Let him go up into the public chair;
We'll hear him.--Noble Antony, go up.

_Ant._ For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you.

[_He goes up into the rostrum._]

_4 Cit._ What does he say of Brutus?

_3 Cit._ He says, for Brutus' sake, 70
He finds himself beholding to us all.

_4 Cit._ 'T were best to speak no harm of Brutus here.

_1 Cit._ This Caesar was a tyrant.

_3 Cit._ Nay, that's certain:
We are blest that Rome is rid of him.

_2 Cit._ Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.

_Ant._ You gentle Romans,--

_All._ Peace, ho! let us hear him.

_Ant._ Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. 80
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. 90
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. 100
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?