According to the Articles of agreement between the Conqueror Henry and the King of France, the latter was to stile the former (in the corrected French of the modern Editions) “Nostre _tres cher_ filz Henry Roy d’Angleterre; and in Latin, _Præclarissimus_ Filius, &c.” “What,” says Dr. Warburton, “is _tres cher_ in French _præclarissimus_ in Latin! we should read _præcarissimus_.”—This appears to be exceedingly true; but how came the blunder? It is a typographical one in Holingshed, which Shakespeare copied; but must indisputably have corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages.—“Our said Father, during his life, shall name, call, and write us in French in this maner: Nostre _tres chier_ filz, Henry Roy d’Engleterre—and in Latine in this maner: _Præclarissimus_ filius noster.” Edit. 1587, p. 574. To corroborate this instance, let me observe to you, though it be nothing further to the purpose, that another error of the same kind hath been the source of a mistake in an historical passage of our Author; which hath ridiculously troubled the Criticks. Richard the third harangues his army before the Battle of Bosworth: Remember whom ye are to cope withal, A sort of vagabonds, of rascals, runaways— And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow, Long kept in _Britaine_ at _our Mother’s_ cost, A milksop, &c.— “_Our_ Mother,” Mr. Theobald perceives to be wrong, and Henry was somewhere secreted on the _Continent_: he reads therefore, and all the Editors after him, Long kept in _Bretagne_ at _his_ mother’s cost. But give me leave to transcribe a few more lines from Holingshed, and you will find at once that Shakespeare had been there before me:—“Ye see further, how a companie of traitors, theeves, outlaws, and runnagates be aiders and partakers of his feat and enterprise.—And to begin with the erle of Richmond, captaine of this rebellion, he is a Welsh milksop—brought up by _my Moother’s_ meanes and mine, like a captive in a close cage, in the court of Francis duke of _Britaine_.” p. 756. Holingshed copies this _verbatim_ from his brother chronicler Hall, Edit. 1548, fol. 54; but his Printer hath given us by accident the word _Moother_ instead of _Brother_; as it is in the Original, and ought to be in Shakespeare. I hope, my good Friend, you have by this time acquitted our great Poet of all piratical depredations on the Ancients, and are ready to receive my _Conclusion_.—He remembered perhaps enough of his _school-boy_ learning to put the _Hig_, _hag_, _hog_, into the mouth of Sir Hugh Evans; and might pick up in the Writers of the time, or the course of his conversation, a familiar phrase or two of French or Italian: but his _Studies_ were most demonstratively confined to _Nature_ and _his own Language_.