63636How would we mock the burden bearing mule

3737If he would brag he were a horseʼs son,

3838To press his pride (might nothing else him rule,)

3939His boast to prove, no more but bid him run.

4040The horse for swiftness hath his glory won,

4141To which the mule could never the more aspire

4242Though he should prove that Pegas was his sire.

74343Each man may crake of that which is his own,

4444Our parentsʼ virtues theirs are and not ours.

4545Who therefore will of noble kind be known

4646Ought shine in virtue like his ancestors.

4747Gentry consisteth not in lands and towers:

4848He is a churl though all the world be his,

4949Yea Arthurʼs heir if that he live amiss.

85050For virtuous life doth make a gentleman

5151Of her possessor, all be he poor as Job,

5252Yea though no name of elders show he can.

5353For proof take Merlin fathered by a hob.

5454But who so settles his mind to spoil and rob,

5555Although he come by due descent from Brute,

5656He is a churl, ungentle, vile, and brute.

95757Well thus did I for want of better wit,

5858Because my parents noughtly brought me up,

5959For gentle men (they said) were nought so fit

6060As to attaste by bold attempts the cup

6161Of conquest's wine, whereof I thought to sup,

6262And therefore bent my self to rob and rive,

6363And whom I could of lands and goods deprive.

106464For Henry the fourth did then usurp the crown,

6565Despoiled the king, with Mortimer the heir,

6666For which his subjects sought to put him down.

6767And I, while Fortune offered me so fair,

6868Did what I might his honor to appair,

6969And took on me to be the prince of Wales,

7070Enticed thereto by many of Merlinʼs tales.