Besides, the real subject of Antony's rhetorical parallelism is good and evil, not living and dying. While that isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, it's a bit of a stretch. The hardest word to scan is lives if you scan it as stressed, you have four consecutive stresses in a row, and the line scans iamb/ pyrrhic/ spondee/ spondee/ iamb. This is a line harder to scan than it might seem at first. This is a calculated tactic to disarm a crowd firmly on the side of Brutus when Antony takes the pulpit. Here's the first irony of Antony's speech, in that he is unequivocally here to praise Caesar. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.Īntony follows with a line of straight iambic pentameter punctuated with a feminine ending. Remember also that Antony has entered the Forum with Caesar's body in tow and will use the corpse as a prop throughout his oration. Antony also echoes the opening line that Brutus uses ('Romans, countrymen, and lovers!'), but conspicuously rearranges it where Brutus begins with 'Romans' to reflect his appeal to their reason, Antony begins with 'friends,' which reflects the more emotional tact he will take throughout the rest of his speech. The succession of hard stresses is also Shakespeare's way of using the verse to help Antony cut through the din of the crowd.

'Friends, Romans, countrymen.' / / - / - / - /įriends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears įrom a rhythmic perspective, the trochaic feel of this opening immediately commands attention.

Lend me your ears figure of speech