Original: How yet resolves the governor of the town?
Modern: What has the governor of the town decided?

Original: This is the latest parle we will admit;
Modern: This is the last negotiation we will allow;

Original: Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
Modern: So surrender yourselves to our most generous mercy;

Original: Or like to men proud of destruction
Modern: Or like men who are proud to be destroyed

Original: Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
Modern: Defy us and face our worst: because, as I am a soldier,

Original: A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
Modern: A title that I think suits me better than any other,

Original: If I begin the battery once again,
Modern: If I start bombarding the town again,

Original: I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Modern: I will not leave Harfleur half-conquered

Original: Till in her ashes she lie buried.
Modern: Until the town lies buried in its own ashes.

Original: The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
Modern: The doors of mercy will all be closed,

Original: And the flesh’d soldier, rough and hard of heart,
Modern: And the battle-hardened soldier, rough and cruel,

Original: In liberty of bloody hand shall range
Modern: Will roam freely with blood on his hands

Original: With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Modern: With a conscience as vast and empty as hell, cutting down like grass

Original: Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
Modern: Your young innocent women and your small children.

Original: What is it then to me, if impious war,
Modern: What does it matter to me, if godless war,

Original: Array’d in flames like to the prince of fiends,
Modern: Dressed in flames like the devil himself,

Original: Do, with his smirch’d complexion, all fell feats
Modern: Does, with his blackened face, all the savage acts

Original: Enlink’d to waste and desolation?
Modern: Connected to destruction and ruin?

Original: What is’t to me, when you yourselves are cause,
Modern: What does it matter to me, when you are the ones responsible,

Original: If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Modern: If your innocent young women fall into the hands

Original: Of hot and forcing violation?
Modern: Of passionate and violent rape?

Original: What rein can hold licentious wickedness
Modern: What restraint can hold back uncontrolled evil

Original: When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
Modern: When it races fiercely downhill out of control?

Original: We may as bootless spend our vain command
Modern: We might as uselessly waste our pointless orders

Original: Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
Modern: On the enraged soldiers during their looting

Original: As send precepts to the leviathan
Modern: As send commands to a sea monster

Original: To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Modern: To come to shore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,

Original: Take pity of your town and of your people,
Modern: Have pity on your town and on your people,

Original: Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Modern: While my soldiers are still under my control;

Original: Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
Modern: While the cool and calm wind of mercy

Original: O’erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Modern: Still blows away the filthy and infectious clouds

Original: Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
Modern: Of reckless murder, destruction and evil acts.

Original: If not, why, in a moment look to see
Modern: If not, then in a moment expect to see

Original: The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Modern: The crazed and bloodthirsty soldier with filthy hands

Original: Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Modern: Violate the hair of your screaming daughters;

Original: Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
Modern: Your old fathers grabbed by their gray beards,

Original: And their most reverend heads dash’d to the walls,
Modern: And their respected heads smashed against the walls,

Original: Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Modern: Your helpless babies stabbed on spears,

Original: Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Modern: While the hysterical mothers with their chaotic screaming

Original: Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
Modern: Pierce the sky, like the Jewish women did

Original: At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
Modern: When Herod’s murderous soldiers hunted their children.

Original: What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Modern: What do you say? Will you surrender, and avoid this,

Original: Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy’d?
Modern: Or, be guilty of resisting and be destroyed like this?

Henry V follows the young English king as he transforms from the wayward Prince Hal into a decisive military leader. The play opens with Henry’s court debating his claim to the French throne through his great-great-grandmother’s lineage. When the French Dauphin mockingly sends Henry tennis balls as a gift, suggesting he should stick to games rather than warfare, Henry uses this insult as justification to invade France. He sentences three conspirators - Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey - to death for plotting against his life, then sets sail for France with his army.

The English forces land in France and lay siege to Harfleur, which Henry captures after his famous “Once more unto the breach” speech. However, his army is weakened by disease and casualties. Meanwhile, we follow the tavern companions from Henry’s youth - Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, and Hostess Quickly, who reports the death of Falstaff. The English army, vastly outnumbered, faces the French at Agincourt. On the eve of battle, Henry disguises himself and walks among his soldiers to gauge their morale, engaging in philosophical discussions about kingship and responsibility.

The Battle of Agincourt proves to be a decisive English victory despite overwhelming French numerical superiority. Henry orders the killing of French prisoners when he believes the French are regrouping, and becomes enraged when he discovers French forces have killed the English boys guarding the baggage train. The English suffer minimal casualties while French losses are enormous. The play concludes with Henry’s courtship of Princess Katherine of France, conducted partly in broken French and English. Their marriage seals the Treaty of Troyes, which names Henry as heir to the French throne, though the Chorus epilogue reminds the audience that Henry’s son would later lose these French territories.