Mark Antony's Speech

Mark Antony gave his speech at the wake of Julius Caesar. At this time, Brutus had killed Caesar and called him a traitor to the Roman cause. He spoke first, and the common people had already gone over to Brutus's side. When Mark Antony stood for his speech, people would rather not hear him, but Brutus was so sure about people supporting him that he allowed it. The people were still shouting loudly when he began. This is where one of the most famous openings of the speech was created, and it is still followed by some orators. The speech was so effective that by the end of it, he had completely swayed all public support towards him. His effort is why Caesar is remembered as a hero and not a traitor and why Brutus is remembered as a murderer. 

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.