An Actor’s Guide to Antony’s “If you have tears” monologue

“If you have tears, prepare to shed them now” – Mark Antony, Act 3, Scene 2.

This monologue, from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a great alternative to the better-known (ahem – OVERDONE) monologue from the same scene, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”.

In it, Mark Antony inspires the Roman public to revenge Caesar’s death by showing them the stab wounds on Caesar’s body and reminding them of all the wonderful things Caesar did for them, and how much Brutus (one of his assassins) loved him.

It has some stirring (and slightly manipulative) rhetoric and imagery.

Mark Antony is possibly Caesar’s biggest (or at least, most vocal) supporter in the play. In my opinion, he represents being ruled by the heart or emotion, while Brutus represents being ruled by intellect. Something the play explores is the human ability to be flexible, empathetic and compassionate, and how that needs to be balanced with reason. Antony, while being genuinely upset about Caesar’s death, also has elements of manipulation and ambition.

In this scene, Antony’s job is to get the general public on side. They are represented by a bunch of “citizens” who shout out responses throughout the scene, like “We will hear the will! Read it, Mark Antony.”

It’s important to know that at the start of the scene, the public are very much against Antony. They have listened to Brutus speak about why they decided to kill him, and they are convinced by his arguments. Antony is allowed to speak, but he has to be very careful about what he says. He is a known supporter of Caesar, so if he is too obvious about trying to get the public on his side, he could be the next to die.

He starts with the famous, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” monologue, in which he calls Brutus and the other assassins” “honourable men”. He uses very careful rhetoric to sway the public away from Brutus – which, moments before, they had been very vocal about supporting.

By this point in the scene (when he begins “If you have tears”), Antony has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He asks permission to come down from the pulpit and show them Caesar’s body. They allow him to do so, and, in this speech, he becomes more obviously emotionally manipulative, and uses the word traitor for the first time.

As an actor, what can be interesting about this monologue is being aware that the crowd could turn on you at any moment. He has gained a lot of confidence over the course of the scene, but he has to tread carefully. If the public disagrees with him, they could simply kill him on the spot. There are also the assassins (who are not present in the scene, but are nearby) whom he might be watching out for. Overall, it’s worth doing a fair amount of imaginative work on location, people and objects that surround you. What do Caesar’s clothes look like? How close are the public next to you, and how many of them are there? How far away is Cassius (reportedly, “In the other street”) – is he within earshot?

There is also something interesting happening in this monologue in terms of power dynamics. By this point, Antony has surely recognised that his powerful rhetoric is having a great effect on the public. Is there a moment in this monologue where he realises that he could be the next Caesar? It can be very interesting for the actor to be aware of the internal struggle – he needs to tread carefully, but he may also be secretly thrilled by the effect that he’s having on the crowd… followed by, perhaps, a feeling of guilt that he could feel so thrilled after his friend has just died. Alternatively, you could choose that Antony actually decided much sooner that he wanted to be the next Caesar, and had planned this as his moment to begin connecting with the public. Plenty of choices to be made!

This monologue sits at around 90 seconds with no cuts. It is not a particularly easy monologue to cut, as each section tends to relate to, or reference, the one before. If you need to cut below 90 seconds, I have some suggested cuts below. You could choose just one cut, if you just want to make sure you have a bit of room within a 90 second time limit, or use both cuts to bring it down to 1 minute.

To make them work, I have changed and added two conjunctives. You’ll see them in brackets, e.g [and] This is to keep the iambic pentameter intact.

If you need to get it down to 60 seconds or less, you can also cut the final section of the monologue and just finish on a powerful note – “Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us.”

You can fairly safely choose from any of the cuts below, but ideally I wouldn’t cut all of them or you will lose a bit of power and a lot of the language.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
‘Twas on a summer’s evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii:
Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb’d;
And as he pluck’d his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow’d it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock’d, or no;
For [And] Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,
Quite vanquish’d him: [and] then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey’s statue,
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us.
O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
Our Caesar’s vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr’d, as you see, with traitors.