Hot. Let me not understand you then:
Speak it in Welsh. 120
Glend. I can speak English, lord, as well as you,
For I was train'd up in the English court;
Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
Many an English ditty lovely well, 124
And gave the tongue an helpful ornament;
A virtue that was never seen in you.
Hot. Marry, and I'm glad of it with all my heart.
I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew 128
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers;
I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd,
Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;
And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
Nothing so much as mincing poetry: 133
'Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag.
Glend. Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.
Hot. I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land 136
To any well-deserving friend;
But in the way of bargain, mark you me,
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
Are the indentures drawn? shall we be gone?
Glend. The moon shines fair, you may away by night: 141
I'll haste the writer and withal
Break with your wives of your departure hence:
I am afraid my daughter will run mad, 144
So much she doteth on her Mortimer. Exit.
Mort. Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!
Hot. I cannot choose: sometimes he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, 149
130 canstick: candlestick
133 mincing: affected
143 break with: inform
148-152 Cf. n.
