One way to speed this up is to lower the resolution on your printer (in the print settings)... normally on laser printers the resolution is high (1200 to 2400 DPI)... if you're just printing text, try turning it down to 300 DPI and print.
See, if you've got 300 dpi, that's 90,000 dots per square inch that the computer and printer have to "rasterize". At 2400 DPI, that's 5.7 million dots.
Another thing you can try is using your printer in PostScript mode. In that mode, images are mathematically "Drawn" using vectors, instead of rasterized into little dots.
I'd try turning down the resolution first. If that solves your problem, think about more RAM for your printer if you need it in that higher res.
--Greg
Just my $0.02
"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg