I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.
You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
But then he goes on in this speech to subtly and cleverly begin to praise Caesar, to unfold the greatness of his friend and undermine the words of Brutus.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
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.
What anyone else dares to boast about---I am speaking as a fool---I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more.
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