Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears

Phrases, sayings and idioms at

The Phrase Finder

Browse phrases beginning with:
[A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z]

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears

Origin

This quotation from Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare's best-known lines. Mark Antony delivers a eulogy in honour of the recently murdered Julius Caesar:

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.

Caesar had been assassinated by a group of conspirators led by Brutus. Brutus had previously delivered a speech in which he claimed that the murder had been done in the name of freedom. In a clever speech, Antony turned the mob against Brutus and the other assassins.

See other phrases and sayings from Shakespeare.