Friends, fellows, countrymen. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
I come not to bury George Lucas, but to praise him.
The bodies of men's offspring are oft interred before their eyes; but the stories that they tell live on forever. So let it be with Lucas.
The noble people here have told you Lucas was avaricious; if so, it were a grievous fault, and grievously hath Lucas answered it.
Here, under leave of all--for so you are, all modest men--come I to speak as a herald of Lucas's resurrection.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me; but you all say that he was avaricious; and you all are modest men.
He hath kept many stories in his breast in Xanadu; did this in Lucas seem avaricious?
When that the poor hath cried, Lucas hath given; avarice should be made of sterner stuff; yet you all say he was avaricious; and you are all modest men.
You all did see that this day, he did present me with a thrice-horned crown, which I nine times accepted; was this avarice? Yet you all say he is avaricious; and you are all modest men.
I speak not to disprove what you all speak; 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 praise him? O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, to fish and birds, and men have lost their sense of wonder and mystery.
Bear with me; my heart is in the tomb under the Mountain, there with Lucas, and I must pause till it come back to me.