comma with apposition (name): of the conspirators, Mark Anthony has

[Karen123456]

Friends, Romans countrymen lend me your ears. Julius Caesar has just been murdered and one of the conspirators, Mark Anthony(,) has just started to deliver his speech at the funeral. What he is really saying is: Listen to me.

Is it necessary to insert a comma after 'Anthony'?

Thanks in advance..

 

[ewie]

Very short answer: yes

 

[Karen123456]

Thanks, Ewie, for the prompt reply.

 

[MilkyBarKid]

...and after Romans. And if I were Shakespeare's editor, I would insist on his placing a dash after 'countrymen':

Friends, Romans, countrymen - lend me your ears.

 

[Karen123456]

Thanks, MilkyBarKid, for being so observant.

 

[Karen123456]

...and after Romans. And if I were Shakespeare's editor, I would insist on his placing a dash after 'countrymen':

Friends, Romans, countrymen - lend me your ears.

Would it be wrong to place a comma after 'countrymen'? I think it is as good as a dash. But what I think may be wrong.

Thanks again.

 

[ewie]

I think a comma is theoretically okay there, Karen, but I'd probably use a dash too, though ~ otherwise it looks like a list rather than an address.

 

[Karen123456]

Thanks, Ewie.

 

[Hermione Golightly]

Since the door has been opened for further punctuation observations, may I suggest quotation marks.This makes it clear that it is a quote.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears."

I have chosen to use an exclamation mark to represent the vocative "Oh friends...".
'Ears' seems most often to be followed by either a comma, a semicolon, or a full stop.

I prefer to use a full stop. Of course I have no authority at all for these choices.

Hermione

 

[ad31677]

Since the door has been opened for further punctuation observations, may I suggest quotation marks.This makes it clear that it is a quote.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears."

I have chosen to use an exclamation mark to represent the vocative "Oh friends...".
'Ears' seems most often to be followed by either a comma, a semicolon, or a full stop.

I prefer to use a full stop. Of course I have no authority at all for these choices.

Hermione

I might likewise prefer an exclamation mark here for indicating what, in Latin, would be the vocative case. I guess many ways are possible but in English - which has no such inflexion of the noun - the general mechanism would appear to be to indicate at least a breathing pause which makes it clear the addressed entity is not the subject of any following verb.

My (very picky and maybe somewhat subjective) £0.02's worth would be:

O friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

I.e., use a comma to separate "Countrymen" from the command and use an exclamation mark to indicate the imperative mood of the verb. (I would be interested to know whether anyone else was ever instructed to use the exclamation mark thus.)

Regards,
Aidan