Original: Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
Modern: Why does the crown just lie there on his pillow,

Original: Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
Modern: When it’s such a restless sleeping companion?

Original: O polish’d perturbation! golden care!
Modern: Oh shining source of worry! Golden burden of responsibility!

Original: That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
Modern: That keeps the gates of sleep wide open

Original: To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now!
Modern: Through many sleepless nights! Sleep with it now!

Original: Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
Modern: But not as peacefully or deeply sweet

Original: As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Modern: As someone whose head is wrapped in a simple nightcap

Original: Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
Modern: Who snores through the entire night. Oh, what power!

Original: When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Modern: When you burden the person who wears you, you feel

Original: Like a rich armour worn in heat of day
Modern: Like expensive armor worn on a hot day

Original: That scald’st with safety. By his gates of breath
Modern: That burns even while protecting. Next to his mouth

Original: There lies a downy feather which stirs not.
Modern: There lies a soft feather that doesn’t move at all.

Original: Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
Modern: If he were breathing, that light and weightless feather

Original: Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
Modern: Would have to move. My noble lord! My father!

Original: This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep
Modern: This sleep is deep indeed; this is the kind of sleep

Original: That from this golden rigol hath divorc’d
Modern: That has separated from this golden crown

Original: So many English kings. Thy due from me
Modern: So many English kings. What I owe you

Original: Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood
Modern: Is tears and the deep grief that family feels

Original: Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
Modern: Which natural feelings, love, and a son’s devotion

Original: Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
Modern: Will, oh dear father, give to you abundantly.

Original: My due from thee is this imperial crown,
Modern: What I deserve from you is this royal crown,

Original: Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Modern: Which, as the direct heir to your position and bloodline,

Original: Derives itself to me. Lo where it
Modern: Passes down to me. Look, here it is

Original: Which God shall guard; and put the world’s whole strength
Modern: Which God will protect; and even if all the world’s strength

Original: Into one giant arm, it shall not force
Modern: Were combined into one giant arm, it could not take

Original: This lineal honour from me. This from thee
Modern: This inherited right away from me. This crown that comes from you

Original: Will I to mine leave as ‘tis left to me.
Modern: I will pass on to my children just as you’ve left it to me.

In Act IV, Scene 5 of Henry IV, Part 2, King Henry IV lies gravely ill in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster. The King calls for music to soothe his troubled mind and asks about the whereabouts of Prince Hal. Warwick reports that the Prince is hunting in Windsor with his brother Gloucester, though Humphrey of Gloucester soon arrives to attend his father. The King’s condition worsens, and he is moved to another chamber to rest. While the King sleeps, Prince Hal arrives and sits beside his father’s bed, observing the crown placed on the pillow. Believing his father has died, the Prince takes the crown and exits with it, overcome with emotion about the weight of kingship now upon him.

King Henry awakens and immediately notices the crown is missing, which deeply distresses him. He laments that his son has taken the crown before he is even dead, interpreting this as eagerness for his father’s death. When Prince Hal returns and learns his father is alive, he kneels before him to explain his actions. The King delivers a harsh rebuke, predicting that England will fall into chaos under Hal’s rule. The Prince defends himself, explaining that he took the crown not out of greed but because he believed his father dead, and he addressed it as his enemy and the thing that had consumed his father’s health. Moved by his son’s sincerity and tears, the King forgives him and gives him counsel about how to rule, including advice about engaging in foreign wars to distract potentially troublesome subjects. The King then asks to be taken back to the Jerusalem Chamber, recalling a prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem.

Henry IV, Part Two - Summary of Events

The play opens with Rumour spreading false news that Hotspur has defeated King Henry IV at Shrewsbury. Northumberland soon learns the truth: his son Hotspur is dead, and the rebellion has failed. Despite his grief and calls from his allies to continue the fight, Northumberland eventually flees to Scotland. Meanwhile, the rebel leaders—the Archbishop of York, Lord Mowbray, and Lord Hastings—gather forces for a new uprising against the King.

Prince Hal continues his time in the taverns of Eastcheap with Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Doll Tearsheet, and his companions. Falstaff, deep in debt and pursued by the Hostess for unpaid bills, manipulates his way out of trouble and is eventually called to join the King’s forces. The King himself is gravely ill and troubled by insomnia, burdened by guilt over how he obtained the crown. He laments that Hal remains irresponsible and fears for England’s future under his son’s rule.

In Gaultree Forest, Prince John of Lancaster meets with the rebels under a flag of truce. He promises to address their grievances, and the rebel leaders dismiss their armies. Once the rebel forces disperse, Prince John arrests the leaders for treason and orders their execution. When the dying King Henry hears of this victory and later finds Hal with the crown at his bedside (believing him dead, Hal had taken it), father and son reconcile. Henry dies, and Hal becomes King Henry V.

As the new king, Henry V publicly rejects Falstaff, who arrives expecting rewards and favor. The King banishes his former companion from his presence, promises him support at a distance, but makes clear their relationship is over. The Lord Chief Justice is retained in his position, and the new king prepares to rule England. The epilogue promises that the story will continue with Henry V’s wars in France and hints that Falstaff will appear again.