Antony: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

This is Act 3, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. Earlier the same day, Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators stabbed Caesar to death in the Capitol, fearing he would make himself king. Mark Antony, Caesar’s friend and ally, shook their bloody hands and asked to speak at the funeral. Cassius warned Brutus against it, but Brutus agreed on conditions: Antony must not blame them, must say he speaks with their permission, and must speak after Brutus. Left alone with the body, Antony promised Caesar revenge and civil war.

Now, in the Forum, Brutus has just won the crowd with a plain prose speech: he killed Caesar not because he loved him less, but because he loved Rome more, and because Caesar was ambitious. The citizens cheer and shout “Let him be Caesar.” Brutus leaves, asking them to stay and hear Antony.

Antony goes up into the public chair, the speaker’s platform, with Caesar’s body before him. The crowd is against him: “This Caesar was a tyrant,” one says, and another warns he had better say no harm of Brutus. This speech is only the first part of what Antony says. When he stops at the end of it, the citizens start to change their minds. He then teases them with Caesar’s will and shows them the wounds, and by the end of the scene they riot and go hunting for the killers.

Lines: 35
Words: 268
At 150 wpm: 1.8 min
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 7 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–2 · Lend me your ears

1Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

In plain English Friends, Romans, fellow countrymen, listen to me. I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

Acting note He is asking a hostile crowd for quiet. The RSC points out the tactic: by claiming he will not defend Caesar, he lowers their guard. “Not to praise him” is a promise he will break within twenty lines.

Lines 3–8 · If it were so

3The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
5So 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.

In plain English The bad that men do is remembered after they die; the good is often buried with them. Let it be that way with Caesar. Noble Brutus has told you Caesar was ambitious. If that was true, it was a serious fault, and Caesar has paid seriously for it.

Acting note He seems to agree with Brutus. The only crack is “If it were so,” the first small doubt. Let it slip in almost unnoticed.

Lines 9–15 · Honourable men

9Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
10For 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;
15And Brutus is an honourable man.

In plain English With the permission of Brutus and the rest (for Brutus is an honourable man, and so are they all) I have come to speak at Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and fair to me. But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man.

Acting note The first “honourable” comes in a polite aside. Play it straight. “He was my friend” is the first personal line, and it sits right against Brutus’s charge.

Lines 16–22 · The evidence

16He 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:
20Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.── 60-second cut ends here ──

In plain English He brought many prisoners home to Rome, and their ransoms filled the public treasury. Did that look ambitious? When the poor cried, Caesar wept. Ambition should be made of harder stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man.

Acting note Each fact ends in a question for the crowd. Leave room for them to answer in their heads. The 60-second cut on this page ends at line 22.

Lines 23–27 · The crown

23You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
25Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.

In plain English You all saw that at the feast of the Lupercal I offered him a king’s crown three times, and three times he refused it. Was that ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and surely he is an honourable man.

Acting note This is his strongest proof, and they all saw it. (Casca, who was there in Act 1, thought Caesar would gladly have taken it.) The word “sure” in line 27 is where the irony is hardest to miss.

Lines 28–31 · What stops you mourning?

28I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
30You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?── 90-second cut ends here ──

In plain English I am not here to disprove what Brutus said, only to tell you what I know. You all loved him once, and with good reason. What reason stops you from mourning him now?

Acting note He denies arguing while arguing. Then he turns the question on the crowd itself. The 90-second cut ends at line 31, on this question.

Lines 32–35 · My heart is in the coffin

32O 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,
35And I must pause till it come back to me.

In plain English Good judgment, you have run off to the animals, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must stop until it comes back to me.

Acting note Is he overcome, or is the pause a tactic? It can be both: real grief that he also knows will work. Notice the sound of “brutish” after so many repetitions of “Brutus.”

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
lend me your ears	1	listen to me
interred	4	buried
grievous	7	serious, heavy
answer’d it	8	paid for it (with his life)
under leave of	9	with the permission of
general coffers	17	the public treasury
sterner stuff	20	harder, tougher material
Lupercal	23	the Lupercalia, a Roman festival held in February
thrice	24	three times
withholds	31	holds back, prevents
brutish beasts	32	animals, creatures without reason

How to perform it

Play the objective: turn a crowd that has just cheered Brutus, without seeming to. Antony has been allowed to speak only if he praises Caesar and does not blame the killers. StageMilk stresses the stakes: he has one chance, and if he fails he may not survive. Every line has to stay inside the rules while it breaks them.
Track the word “honourable.” It comes five times in the speech, and the RSC asks how its meaning changes each time. Wikipedia describes the sarcasm as becoming more and more obvious. If you sneer on the first one, the crowd turns on you and you have nowhere to go. Let it sour slowly.
Use the questions. “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”, “Was this ambition?” and “What cause withholds you then?” are real questions to real people. Picture faces in the crowd and see the answer arrive in them before you move on.
Vary the delivery. StageMilk warns that the risk is a one-note declaration, and suggests trying the speech as a huge public address and then quietly, to two or three people, then angry, then gentle and smiling. The final version can mix all of these, shifting as the crowd shifts.
Handle the verse simply. It is mostly regular, and most lines end with a pause in the punctuation, which helps the plain, reasonable tone Antony wants. Lines 9 to 12 are one sentence with an aside in the middle; keep “Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest” connected to “Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.”
Common mistakes: playing it as a rousing oration from the first word; showing your contempt for Brutus too early; and forgetting the body. Caesar’s corpse is right there, and line 34 points straight at it.

Using it in an audition

Use this one with care. Backstage lists it among the most overdone Shakespeare audition pieces, because its whole effect depends on a crowd you will not have, and suggests Antony’s later speech in the same scene, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now,” as a better choice. If you still want it, the full speech runs about 1.8 minutes at 150 words a minute, so it is over a 90-second limit. The 60-second cut on this page ends at line 22, after the second piece of evidence; the 90-second cut ends at line 31, on the question to the crowd. Both lose the heart in the coffin, which is the speech’s real ending, so if you cut, make the final question land as an accusation. The play does not give Antony’s age, so the speech suits a wide range of adult actors who can play political cunning and real grief at once. Pair it with something light and private, such as Benedick’s “This can be no trick” from Much Ado About Nothing.

Antony, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	2.1 minutes
Conversational	150	1.8 minutes
Brisk	170	1.6 minutes

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer. The cut marks in the text stop at a full sentence near 60 seconds (line 22) and 90 seconds (line 31).

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

F, R, c, l m y e;

I c t b C, n t p h.

T e t m d l a t;

T g i o i w t b;

S l i b w C. T n B

H t y C w a:

I i w s, i w a g f,

A g h C a i.

H, u l o B a t r—

F B i a h m;

S a t a, a h m—

C I t s i C f.

H w m f, f a j t m:

B B s h w a;

A B i a h m.

H h b m c h t R,

W r d t g c f:

D t i C s a?

W t t p h c, C h w:

A s b m o s s:

Y B s h w a;

A B i a h m.

Y a d s t o t L

I t p h a k c,

W h d t r: w t a?

Y B s h w a;

A, s, h i a h m.

I s n t d w B s,

B h I a t s w I d k.

Y a d l h o, n w c:

W c w y t, t m f h?

O j! t a f t b b,

A m h l t r. B w m;

M h i i t c t w C,

A I m p t i c b t m.

More from Julius Caesar

More lists: Shakespeare monologues, Monologues for men, Dramatic monologues.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Antony’s Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears speech?

35 lines and 268 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.8 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.1 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.