Once again, a stunning oratorical move by Antony. By depicting himself as plainspoken, he is concealing the subtle trickery woven throughout his speech. Antony knew precisely how to turn the crowd’s favor to his side. But, having done so, he pretends to be blind to his own charisma, which makes him all the more popular.

Here is another brilliant rhetorical move by Antony. What he wishes to do is stir the hearts and minds of the public to mutiny and rage. By framing the possibility of mutiny as a hypothetical condition, he plants the seed in the mind of the public. He then deftly backs away, citing the nobility of Brutus and Cassius once more.

Thus Antony begins to unspool a brilliant line of rhetoric. He punctuates his speech by returning again and again to the idea that “Brutus is an honorable man.” As Antony comes to reveal his true beliefs, the statement of Brutus’s nobility becomes increasingly ironic.

Brutus’s case for his murder of Caesar hinges on two arguments. First, Caesar was ambitious, and ambition is punishable by death. Second, that Caesar was tyrannical, putting the Roman people in the position of bondmen (slaves). Note that Brutus offers no evidence to support these claims. Mark Antony’s ensuing speech is remarkable in the way that he uses evidence to dismantle Brutus’s position here.

By referring to the public as “the numbers,” Brutus reiterates the idea that the citizens of Rome are a means to an end. To Brutus and Cassius, the public are simply a number that needed to be swayed in order to advance their political agenda.

"Unkind" in Shakespeare's time meant unnatural, ungrateful, and degenerate. Antony uses these words to blame Caesar's death on Brutus's character: in essence, it was not the stab wound that killed Caesar, but Brutus's betrayal. Antony's memorial for Caesar quickly becomes a character assassination of Brutus.

"Stern" means harsh or severe. In painting Caesar as a weak man who lacked stern ambition, Antony makes the ambition of the assassins cold, stern, and self-interested. Unlike Brutus who uses rhetorical questions to guide his audience onto his way of thinking, Antony makes declarative statements. Caesar wept for the poor. Ambition should be stern. This leaves little up to interpretation for the audience and makes Antony's speech stronger.

Brutus uses rhetorical questions and antithesis to make his case to the mob why he and the other conspirators murdered Caesar. In this way, Brutus is able to emphasize both his love of country and his love of Caesar while deemphasizing the murder.

Antony beings his speech, one of the most famous speeches in Shakespearian drama, by parodying Brutus's speech. Brutus says "Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent." Antony improves the internal rhythm of the line and invokes an intimacy and shared nationality that Brutus's lines lack. In calling his audience "friends" first, Antony establishes a connection that Brutus's formulaic address lacks. Antony also uses mock humility with his "lend me your ears" as opposed to the arrogant command "be silent" that Brutus uses to command attention. Antony's rhetorical appeal allows him to manipulate the crowd and make them believe his position; Brutus lectured the crowd to get them on his side. For this reason, the crowd supports Antony's claim and turns on Brutus.

It is noteworthy that Shakespeare has his Mark Antony tell the plebeians that he is no orator but only a plain blunt man speaking extemporaneously--and then end the passage with a dazzling subjunctive sentence containing four bizarre images. Antony becomes Brutus and Brutus becomes Antony. Together they put tongues in all of Caesar’s many wounds. These tongues cause the cobblestones in the streets to rise and mutiny—or perhaps the stones turn into men of stone who stand up and mutiny. Note the use of the subjunctive in “But were I Brutus” and in “…that should move the stones of Rome.” The mob is probably bewildered by this oratorical magic and imagines that Antony, Brutus, Julius Caesar, and the stones or Rome are all unanimously inciting them to riot.

These lines are wonderful. Antony's voice would go up a full octave between the words "I tell you that which" and "you yourselves do know." Then when he points to Caesar's wounds and says, "And bid them speak for me," he should remain absolutely silent for a long, long pause, probably holding one hand against his own breast as if to prevent himself from speaking further, while the assembled citizens stare at Caesar's wounds and seem to see them forming lips and babbling in a surrealistic chorus. Imagine calling on the dead Julius Caesar himself to address the mob!!! 

Antony has known all along that Caesar's wounds will be his strongest argument, because they belie Brutus's assertion that theirs was a "noble sacrifice" and look more like the result of frenzied butchery. In his soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, Antony says:

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,--
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue--
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;

This introductory line suggests that Brutus has his entire speech already planned out. He doesn't want to get interrupted until he has finished the whole speech as he has organized and rehearsed it. He is concerned about the total, overall effect. It should be noted that Brutus has had plenty of time to write his speech out and rehearse it, complete with gestures, since he knows when and where Caesar is going to die. That explains why Brutus's speech, in contrast to Antony's, is so formal and so full of gracefully balanced phrases, such as:

Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear.

Or:

Not that I loved Caesar less. but that I loved Rome more.

In his own funeral oration, Antony refers to Brutus contemptuously as an "orator." This suggests that Brutus is a polished public speaker who has studied under professionals, but not necessarily sincere, truthful, or entirely "human." 

Antony himself has had no time to prepare a funeral speech. He didn't expect Caesar to be assassinated, and he didn't know whether he would be able to have any part in the funeral proceedings. His speech is entirely spontaneous in contrast to that of Brutus, which sounds stiff, formal, dispassionate and rehearsed. Antony interacts with his audience; he doesn't ask them to be silent and listen to the end, because he doesn't know exactly where he is going. He is inspired by his emotions and his intuition; whereas Brutus is reciting a rehearsed speech composed by a man who relies on his powers of reason.

We cannot assume that any man could deliver such a model of oratory as the speech by Brutus without having worked on it for many hours before delivering it at the appropriate time. Brutus is just the kind of man who would give a great deal of thought to what he was going to say after the deed was done. The fact that the speech is so professional works to Brutus's disadvantage. It shows that he was planning Caesar's assassination for a long time before the Ides of March. In other words, Caesar was murdered in cold blood and not in the heat of emotion. That is why Antony refers to the conspirators as "butchers."

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!

Butchers go about their bloody work dispassionately. They have no feelings for the animals they slaughter.

Antony is referring to the same incident that was described contemptuously by Casca to Brutus and Cassius in Act I, Scene 2.

**CASCA:
**Why, there was a crown offered him, and being offered
him: he put it by with the back of his hand, thus, and then
the people fell a-shouting.

Caesar wanted to make the people think that he was humble and modest, not ambitious or potentially despotic. Neither he nor Antony could foresee that this phony performance would be persuasive when Antony referred back to it in his funeral oration.

Antony himself has learned to act like his mentor Caesar before the Roman mob. Antony seems humble and modest. He calls the citizens "masters" and says he is just a plain blunt man. In contrast to Brutus's studied oration, Antony's entire funeral speech seems informal and extemporaneous.

Antony means that he is not going to attempt to disprove what Brutus said in his speech, the gist of which was:

As Caesar(25)
loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at
it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious,
I slew him. There is tears for his love, joy for his fortune,
honor for his valor, and death for his ambition.

Antony can hardly deny that Caesar was ambitious because Antony himself, who was close to Caesar, knows he was ambitious. He asks the crowd, "Was this ambition?" but does not go so far to say that Caesar was not. Instead he appeals to their emotions, asking why they cannot at least mourn for the fallen hero regardless of whether he was ambitious or not. His ambition hardly matters anymore, since he is a corpse, only a memory. Brutus appealed to their reason. Antony turns it around by suggesting that if they were reasonable they would be mourning Caesar. He even says that men have lost their reason. The First Citizen echoes Antony when he says, "Methinks there is much reason in his sayings." In other words, it is reasonable to become unreasonable and succumb to one's emotions. The truth is that there is not much reason in Antony's speech, but he knows that the masses are guided by their emotions and their self-interest. Brutus, the stoic, was a prime example of a man whose philosophy exalted reason above emotion, as he demonstrates later in the play when he refuses to yield to grief over the suicide of his wife Portia. Antony, the hedonist, is a prime example of a man who is guided by his feelings. It is his feelings that will one day lead to his downfall.

This is a cue for the citizens to form a circle around the coffin. There is most likely no body inside the coffin but only a dummy covered by the bloody cloak. Shakespeare wanted the circle of men to conceal the coffin, because he only intended for the cloak to be displayed to the theater audience. The citizens presumably look down into the coffin and see Caesar's mutilated body and react with pity which turns to outrage; but it would have been awkward for Shakespeare to try to show a real person, the actor who had been playing Caesar, all covered with bloody wounds. Anyway, Shakespeare learned from reading Plutarch that it was the shredded and bloodied mantle that aroused the mob to mutiny. Less is more. It would be more moving, as well as more practical, to show one thing than two. The playwright realized that it would be very effective to have Antony raise the mantle out of the coffin and expose it to its entire length, and that this would give his theater audience a vivid impression of what the "corpse" inside the coffin must look like.

Notice how Antony keeps using the word "will." He uses it twice in this sentence and four times in these four lines. 

Antony understands human nature. He knows that the citizens will be more interested in the prospect of getting some money than in anything else. Furthermore, since Antony has possession of the will, they feel they must support him in order to receive its benefits. If Brutus and Cassius got their hands on Caesar's will they might burn it and the citizens would get nothing. Obviously if Brutus and Cassius murdered Caesar, they are not going to pay much attention to his will. On the other hand, Antony displays it publicly and signifies that he intends to see that it is honored.

This is Marc Antony's "ace-in-the-hole." He has kept it concealed under his toga all this time, waiting for the appropriate moment to expose it to the assembled mob. Shakespeare is drawing on actual history derived from a translation of Plutarch. No one in Shakespeare's theater audience knows about this will except for a few who are acquainted with Roman history. 

Antony has two advantages over Brutus, two "props" he can use to stir up the citizens to mutiny. One is Caesar's mutilated body covered with a shredded and bloodstained cloak; the other is Caesar's will bequeathing money and land to the Roman people.

The word "will" is repeated over and over after this. It obviously has a double meaning. It applies to the actual "parchment with the seal of Caesar," and it also foretells that the powerful will of Julius Caesar will dominate the Romans even after he has been assassinated. Julius Caesar did not succeed in becoming king, as he obviously intended, but his nephew and heir Octavius Caesar actually became an emperor and a god, and he was followed, after a long rule, by a whole line of emperors bearing the name of Caesar. 

Brutus is an intelligent, learned, rational man, a philosopher and a stoic who does not believe in succumbing to his negative moods. He will demonstrate this much later in his tent at Philippi when he learns that his wife Portia committed suicide. In his speech he appeals to the citizens' rational judgment. Antony, on the other hand, appeals to their emotions, which is in character for him because he is an emotional, hedonistic, impetuous type of man. He demonstrates his strong emotional nature in his soliloquy which begins with the words addressed to Caesar's corpse, "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers." Here he has the crowd weeping. 

Shakespeare probably inserted the words, "O, now you weep," as a cue for all those listening to him to begin weeping. There had to be some sort of signal for this to begin generally. 

This is a very subtle suggestion. Brutus gave a very logical, carefully structured speech in which he asked the citizens to judge him rationally, in effect to be guided by their reason. Antony is here suggesting that it is irrational for them not to feel their emotions, including their love for Caesar and their grief over his death. They should not withhold their true feelings but experience and express them, as Antony himself is doing now. It is interesting that when Antony pauses, the First Citizen says, "Methinks there is much reason in his sayings." 

Antony is pretending that he had no intention of telling the mob about Caesar's will at this time because he didn't want to inflame them. He is referring back to his words

'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs,
For if you should, O, what would come of it!

By saying that he has "o'ershot" himself he is implying that, of course, he would have had to reveal the contents of Caesar's will eventually but that he had not intended to let it slip at this time because he was trying so hard not to make trouble for Brutus and the other conspirators. 

Throughout his speech, Antony is pretending that he is not an accomplished orator. Therefore he may be excused for showing Caesar's will and then deciding not to read it and for telling the mob they are Caesar's heirs and then claiming he hadn't intended to reveal that information at this crucial time.

Antony is tantalizing the mob with Caesar's will. He knows human nature and knows that nothing will influence people so much as money. Money talks! 

Antony keeps pretending that he merely wants to bury Caesar and not cause any trouble. Yet his whole speech is intended to start a general mutiny. This line is especially cunning because he is telling the mob they are Caesar's heirs and at the same time telling them it is good they do not know they are his heirs. A moment later he will pretend that he let this information slip by accident when he says, "I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it."

It is noteworthy that the citizens do not react to Antony's speech by wanting to make him king, as they reacted to that of Brutus. This is probably because Brutus has the dignity and aloofness of a king, whereas Antony presents himself as a man of the people. It is also noteworthy that Antony apparently does not consider replacing Julius Caesar as de facto ruler of Rome but shares power with Octavius Caesar and temporarily with Lepidus.

The reaction of the citizens is ironic, since Brutus is opposed to establishing a monarchy--and now they want to make him king. This suggests that there is such a swelling popular desire for a strong-man ruler that the evolution of the Roman government into a monarchy is unstoppable. Adolf Hitler took advantage of the chaos in Germany in the 1930s to establish his own strong-man rule, which was, like Benito Mussolini's fascist rule in Italy, inspired by the history of ancient Rome.

This seems like an inept and even laughable way of expressing himself in his opening words. Perhaps Shakespeare intended it to sound awkward, in contrast to the polished oratory of Brutus--and even expected some laughter from the theater audience. Antony may be intentionally starting off sounding inexperienced at public speaking and very unsure of what he is going to say to this hostile crowd. If he could make some of the Plebeians laugh, it wouldn't be a bad way to start off. Later in his speech Antony will explicitly reveal the contrast he has been striving to create from the beginning:

I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend, and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood. I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know; - See more at: http://www.enotes.com/topics/julius-caesar/etext/act-iii#etext-act-iii-act-iii-scene-ii

These words encapsulate the major conflict in the play. The supporters of Caesar wanted a monarchy, while the conspirators wanted a republic, or commonwealth. Brutus thought he was on the verge of establishing, or re-establishing, such a commonwealth; but Caesar's formidable will was so uncannily unstoppable that it brought about the monarchy even after his death. Octavius Caesar eventually became the first Roman emperor.

This line should be read with strong emphasis on the word "him."

Here Antony would raise his voice in order to make himself heard above the clamor, after softening his tone when he began the part that starts with:

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

So parts of Antony's funeral speech would be spoken in a loud voice and other parts softly, intimately, and fraught with emotion--in sharp contrast to the speech of Brutus which is logical and unemotional and sounds like the carefully structured formal presentation of a professional orator. 

The mob members can supposedly see Caesar's body in the coffin, but the audience can only see the torn and bloody mantle which Antony is holding up to its full length with both hands.

Antony of course has no idea which rent in the garment was made by which conspirator. He wasn't even present when it happened. And he actually ran away to hide in his house. But he has the mob so hypnotized that it doesn't occur to any of them to wonder. Shakespeare found it much more effective to have Antony hold up a large bloody cloak to full view of the house than to try to exhibit Caesar's body covered with fake wounds. In this, Shakespeare was taking advantage of what he found in Plutarch, because the historian writes that it was the bloody and shredded garment that moved the people to pity, grief, rage, and mutiny.

No doubt the actor playing Antony would lower his voice for the following part of his speech, since everyone has drawn as close to him as possible and is silent, listening intently for information about how each has benefited from Caesar's will.

Brutus' speech is all about himself from start to finish. Listening to his speech, one might think that Brutus did everything by himself. He doesn't even mention his partner Cassius. This shows Brutus' one fault, which is egotism. In this respect he is very much like Julius Caesar. Brutus' extreme egotism will lead to his downfall, because he will not be guided by any opinion but his own. Mark Antony's speech will be more effective because he will seem modest and even humble. He will talk about everybody, including Brutus and the other conspirators, and will make many references to the commoners themselves. 

The word "coffin" tells us that Caesar's body is not on display but is concealed from view in a coffin. Shakespeare had no intention of displaying Caesar's ravaged and bloody corpse to his audience because it would have been too difficult to fake such an exhibit. Instead Antony carries in a dummy and places it inside a coffin, still covered by a torn and blood-stained mantle. When Antony later removes the mantle, the mob members will look into the coffin and pretend to be horrified at the condition of the body; but the audience will see nothing but Caesar's shredded garment, which appears to be the remains of the one he put on when he left home.

Antony is probably standing center stage with Caesar's coffin in front of him. The mob members would have to be facing him with their backs to the audience. The word "About!" is evidently a cue spoken by one man to direct all the others to turn at the same time, face the audience, and start advancing step by step, with some holding tools of their trade such as hammers, cleavers, and butcher knives. Antony calls them back and they turn around again--but this glimpse of an angry and ugly mob, with one shouting, "Let not a traitor live!", should have the calculated effect of frightening the audience and perhaps reminding them that they are not sympathizers with Brutus and Cassius but either neutral or pro-Antony and pro-Caesar. The turning point in the play for the Roman people would thus also be a turning point in the sympathies of the members of the audience.

Note how many times Antony uses the word "will." The document is his strongest weapon against the conspirators, and he is building up the mob's eagerness to learn how they have benefited from it.

Antony is toying with the mob, pretending he does not intend to read the will but constantly using the word "will" and here speaking of a "rich legacy."