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. symbolisms