Which sentence best expresses Antony’s message that the people of Rome should grieve for Caesar?
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
(excerpt from Act 3, Scene II)
ANTONY:
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 honorable 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 honorable 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 honorable 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. (weeps)
1 answer
The sentence that best expresses Antony’s message that the people of Rome should grieve for Caesar is:
"What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?"
This line directly questions the audience's reluctance to mourn Caesar, emphasizing his importance and the injustice of his death, which is central to Antony's plea for the people to grieve.
