Shakespeare’s profound rhetoric in Julius Caesar remains consequential today
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 is a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered 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 has 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 judgement, 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.
William Shakespeare from Julius Caesar
This speech is among the best pieces of rhetorical oratory in literature. Within it may be found supreme examples of the art of oratory and the most effective illustrations of rhetoric delivered in the most exquisite poetry. It is among the most memorable samples of argument and persuasion in verse ever written. That is why it stands out in literature, perennially referred to and quoted.
This dramatic excerpt is the first part of the famous funeral oration delivered by Marcus Antonius at the burial of the unjustly assassinated leader of Rome, Julius Caesar. It is important for many reasons. It pays tribute to a hero who was for Classical Rome “the foremost man of all the world”, for whom it was true in his time and for long after in history, that he “doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus”. But further, it is the speech that was so persuasive and effectively performed by Antony that it brought Rome back to its senses after the shocking assassination by the deceived Brutus and the envious Cassius, and set the forces in motion to bring about redress and justice. It is largely the master touch of rhetoric that swings this.
The speech is a part of a play, but it far transcends that dramatic context. The most enduring factor is its use of rhetoric in argument and persuasion. Just as how we describe logic and reasoning to be “the science of argument”, rhetoric may be considered “the art of argument”. It is a tool or device used in persuasive argument; it is a kind of oratory, an impressive sounding style in argument. It also appears very extensively in literature and is fortified by several literary devices. It has its roots in ancient culture, particularly the Classical Era, and its equivalent may be found in the Orient as well as in the Yoruba tradition of ornamented, proverb-laden formal speech.
It originates from the Greek word “rhetor” which meant an ancient Greek or Roman professor of rhetoric. It came down through Greek, Latin and Middle English to mean an orator – one who has the skills of rhetoric; one who has excellence in public speech; one who can persuade through the art of oratory – effective, impressive, persuasive speech or writing. An orator masters the art of public speaking.
It has been a practised art with techniques that had to be studied. It was so important that it became part of formal education, a mark of learning and stature. In the Elizabethan age in Britain, for example, rhetoric was a tradition in which men were trained. Shakespeare received such an education, since he was privileged to attend the best secondary school available in Warwickshire in his time. He was able to apply it in many plays and poetry, and it can be seen demonstrated here in Antony’s speech.
There are numerous techniques and strategies employed in rhetoric that abound in argument and literature. Some of them appear in this extract, such as ethos, logos, pathos and anaphora. Related to anaphora are repetitio and gradatio. The terms are borrowed from Greek and Italian, cultures in which this art has had long and noble practice.
Ethos is used to establish authority in support of argument, to lend authenticity to what is being claimed. Antony advances his credibility by first explaining that he is speaking “under leave of Brutus and the rest”. Having justified his presence and authority, he further advances his credentials – Caesar “was my friend, faithful and just to me”, which empowers him to speak first hand about Caesar. He claims to speak “what I do know”. His audience can therefore accept what he claims. His authority is underlined by the fact that his speech is approved by Brutus, who, he reiterates, “is an honourable man”. Therefore his place in the ceremonies is beyond question. However, Shakespeare’s poetic and dramatic use of this form of rhetoric rises to the fore because of the irony. In spite of his protestations that he does not intend “to disprove what Brutus hath said”, and his repeated reminders about the honour of Brutus, he sets out quite forcibly to prove Brutus wrong. His ironic disclaimers, then become part of the effectiveness of his argument and the heights of the poetry.
Logos gains strength from the establishment of ethos, because logos appeals to the logical nature of the argument – that what he says is valid and can be supported by sound evidence, and therefore makes sense. Antony consistently backs up his argument with references to factual evidence. His claims arise from premises which are true and verified. Caesar, not once, but “thrice” refused the “kingly crown” that was offered to him. “Was this ambition?” Antony asks, using the rhetorical question, whose answer in this case is obvious and indisputable. An ambitious man would not refuse such a straightforward path to personal power. Note, too, Antony points out that this refusal of the crown is something that they all witnessed – “you all did see”, he emphasises. In each case he shows that his claims of Caesar’s plebeian nobility cannot be disputed. One can therefore say his speech is logical.
Pathos plays a great part in the speech because of the constant, underlying appeals to the emotion of the audience. Pathos is the tragic sense, the probing of the emotions to evoke sadness and empathy. The excerpt ends with Antony breaking down in emotion – “my heart lies in the coffin there with Caesar/ and I must pause till it comes back to me”. This is a dramatic appeal to the feelings of the crowd, and it can further be said that this happens throughout the speech. There is the direct reminder – “you all did love him once, not without cause/ What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?”
That is audience appeal, which can make the most powerful impact in the deployment of rhetoric. Anaphora refers to such an impact brought about by the utilisation of repetition as a strategy – where words and phrases are repeated, as in repetitio, or where phrases, sentence patterns are repeated; where there is a series of beginning a sentence with a different word, but a word which repeats the same meaning; where sound patterns or syntactic patterns are repeated. Foremost here is the reiteration that “Brutus is an honourable man”. This always follows reference to the false charge that Caesar was ambitious, as a part of the orchestrated irony in which the charge is categorically disproved. Gradatio is the case where the series of repetitions are graded – they deliberately lead up to a conclusion – in this case it is to the undisguised revelation that Caesar was wronged and Brutus dishonourable.
This famous funeral oration is a most carefully calculated dismantling of the charge of ambition made against Julius Caesar and the fueling of slowly rising sentiments against Brutus. This is achieved through one of the most powerful pieces of dramatic rhetorical oratory rendered in poetry. The lines are found in a very carefully constructed play, a Shakespearean tragedy influenced by the Elizabethan times and its preoccupation with Roman history, as well as by the Classical tragedies, but thoroughly illustrative of the imagination, skill and inventiveness of a mature playwright, demonstrating the work of a scholar, well versed in rhetoric.