Note 16 — SCENE III.—A Public Place in Rome.
Reading edition
Because I would live. Have I not answered you? because I would live. Fools and madmen are no rubs[16] in the way of usurpers; the firmament can brook but one sun, and for my part I must not shine: I had rather live an obscure black than appear a fair white to be shot at. The end of all is, I would live. Had Servius been a shrub, the wind had not shook him: or a madman, he had not perished. I covet no more wit nor employment than as much as will keep life and soul together—I would but live.