Friends, Romans, Countrymen

10th grade was a long time ago, but Mark Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar continues to live on as my favorite. All hail Shakespeare!

From Act 3, Scene II, mourning Caesar’s death, Mark Antony:

“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 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.
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.
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,
And I must pause till it come back to me.”

Shivya Nath

Hi there! I’m Shivya, and I started this travel blog back in 2011, when travel wasn’t trendy, Instagram didn’t exist and AI wasn’t a thing (simpler times, I know!). I write about slow, meaningful and conscious travel – that is good for us, the places we visit, the people we meet along the way, and the planet at large. Settle down, grab a cup of tea, and read stories that remind you of the essence of travel. I’m so glad you found me!