Name___________________________________________ Giving Voice to Poetry of the Past

The Beatles used the line "lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song" in "With a Little Help from My Friends", 1967.

Anthony’s Funeral Speech

Many tools appear in Anthony’s speech, including verbal irony and repetition that strongly
appeal to the plebeians "pathos" emotions. Because of these rhetorical tools, Antony persuaded the
people of Rome to believe the assassination of Casear by the conspirators was a murderous act and
not an act for the Roman people to protect them from a dictator. The beauty of this speech is that
Antony made his point and made people believe him without coming out and stating it. In the speech
that follows, Antony merely sets the table for dissent. He progressively hits upon the notes of
ambition and honourable that soon calls both terms into question. Antony's prime weapons at the
beginning are his conspicuous ambiguity regarding Caesar ("If it were so, it was a grievous fault") and
Brutus ("Yet Brutus says he was ambitious"), rhetorical questions ("Did this in Caesar seem
ambitious?") and feigned intent ("I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke"). More chilling, however,
is Antony's cynical epilogue to the funeral speech as the mob departs: "Now let it work: mischief, thou
art afoot/Take thou what course thou wilt!" Antony exemplifies the art of persuasion and the
importance of rhetorical devices in any kind of speech or literature. Using the three main rhetorical
devices - Ethos, Logos, and Pathos - will help you become a better speaker and writer – convincing
your audience and pulling readers in to your book or speech.

Questions for Consideration as you memorize and perform:

1. Who is the Speaker, and what are his credentials?

2. What is the Context of the argument? What preceded or provoked this speech? How have others responded
to the context?

3. Who is Antony’s Audience? Why is Context an important consideration in terms of Antony’s approach in this
speech?

4. What is Antony’s Purpose?

5. What is his Argument?

6. How does Antony support his argument? Where does he use logical appeals? Where does he use emotional
appeals? How does he establish his credibility?

7. How does Antony refute his opposition? How does he destroy the credibility of his opponent? Why does he
choose subtlety over a direct approach?

8. Where do you see tone change in Antony’s speech?

With your answers to these questions in mind, be sure to use these rhetorical devices effectively in your
presentation to persuade your audience (vox populi) to completely reverse their attitudes.

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“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 often 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.
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He begins with an Asyndeton. This is when you make a list but
don’t put conjunctions. Antony stressed the word “friends” many
times in his speech. This word refers to people in the crowd. This
word has the connotations of confidence, familiarity, and trust, which
makes Antony a positive figure in the eyes of the people.
Antony combines two Rhetorical devices here: 1 Personification:
attribution of personality to an impersonal thing. Making the evil and
the good living things and 2 he uses Tautology which is the
repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence. He is
essentially saying the same thing with different words in each line.
In this original statement of grievance, Antony uses a Syllepsis: use
of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood
differently.
The most common Rhetorical Device used by Shakespeare in this
monologue is Irony. This is an expression of something which is
contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean
another. And your audience knows what it means. Shakespeare
uses this line as an Antistrophe through out the speech. An
Antistrophe is a repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of
successive clauses or stanzas.
Here is irony and antistrophe again.
Here Shakespeare begins a series of Rhetorical Questions so the
crowd can prove to themselves that Caesar was not ambitions.
Verbal irony consequently instilled doubt in people’s minds for what
the murderers of Caesar did and the reason they did it.
Here is irony and antistrophe again.
Rhetorical Question.
Here is irony and antistrophe again.
Antithesis is the opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a
balanced or parallel construction.
2
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,
Rhetorical Question.
Hyperbolic Metaphor is used here. Hyperbole is the exaggeration
for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.

And I must pause till it come back to me.

Aposiopesis caps off this part of the speech. Aposiopesis is a form
of ellipse by which a speaker comes to an abrupt halt, seemingly
overcome by emotion.
Literary Theory - An author may use one or all of three strategies:

a) pathos (emotional appeal)

non-logical, senses, biases, prejudices, connotative language, euphemism, figurative language, friendly
b) logos (logical appeal)
inductive deductive, syllogisms, enthymeme claims, evidence, testimony, quotes, facts, authority
c) ethos (ethical appeal)
intelligence, virtue and good will; appeals to morals or prudence

The rise of rhetoric in Ancient Greece was one of particular interest and concern to philosophers like Plato and
Aristotle. Rhetoric became the eloquent art form of lawyers, politicians, and leaders seeking to persuade
audiences through speech. Marc Antony’s cunning use of rhetoric plays heavily on the emotions of his
Plebeian audience. What makes Marc Antony speech so persuasive is his use of Aristotelian devices:
logos, pathos, and ethos. The first rhetorical device that Antony uses is logos/logic to persuade his
audience. Antony says, “The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious.” Antony uses deductive
reasoning to support Brutus’ argument.

Ambition is a grievous fault

Caesar had ambitions
Caesar had a grievous fault.

Antony counters his own deductive reasoning by logically illustrating how un-ambitious Caesar was.
Caesar ransomed solders, wept for the poor, and denied the crowd thrice! Can this be considered
ambitious? Antony turns away and weeps to appeal to the pathos/emotion of his audience. Antony’s
display of emotions tugs at he heart of his audience who are touched by the tears in his eyes. Antony uses
more deductive reasoning to persuade his audience.

We should mourn those we once loved

We once had cause to love Caesar
Therefore we should mourn Caesar.

In a gripping tug at his audiences’ emotions; Antony equates the fall of Caesar to fall of everyone. The
sight of Caesar’s mangled body stirs the crowd to a furry and rage. Pathos proves to be Antony’s strongest
tool of persuasion. Antony credibility/ethos is visible when he descends the platform and stands on the
same level as the Plebeians. He endures himself to the people by claiming he is no orator. Through the
power of rhetoric Antony achieves what Plato feared the most; he mesmerizes his audience through
eloquent speech, and war and chaos breaks out.

Works Cited

Murray, Penelope. Classical Literary Criticism. Penguin Books: New York, 2004.

Nordquist, Dr. Richard. “Comments on the Rhetoric of Brutus and Marc Anthony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar”. Atlanta State

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 University. 2 Feb 2009.

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