Original: So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him:
Modern: So, if a father sends his son on a business trip and the son dies at sea while committing sins, by your logic, the blame for the son’s wickedness should fall on the father who sent him.

Original: or if a servant, under his master’s command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of the servant’s damnation:
Modern: Or if a servant carrying money for his master is attacked by robbers and dies with many unrepented sins, you could say the master’s orders caused the servant’s damnation.

Original: but this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant;
Modern: But this isn’t true: the king isn’t responsible for how each of his soldiers dies, just as a father isn’t responsible for his son’s death, or a master for his servant’s.

Original: for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their services.
Modern: Because they don’t intend for them to die when they send them to do their jobs.

Original: Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers:
Modern: Besides, no king, no matter how just his cause, can go into battle with an army made up entirely of morally pure soldiers.

Original: some peradventure have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
Modern: Some perhaps carry the guilt of planned and deliberate murder.

Original: some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury;
Modern: Some are guilty of seducing innocent women with false promises and lies.

Original: some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery.
Modern: Some use war as a shield for their crimes, having previously destroyed peaceful society through looting and theft.

Original: Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God:
Modern: Now, if these men have escaped the law and avoided punishment in their homeland, even though they can outrun human justice, they cannot escape God.

Original: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
Modern: War is God’s officer, war is His way of delivering justice.

Original: so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel:
Modern: So these men are being punished for their past crimes against the king’s laws through their deaths in the king’s war.

Original: where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish:
Modern: Where they expected to die, they survived; and where they thought they’d be safe, they die.

Original: then if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited.
Modern: So if they die unprepared for death, the king is no more guilty of their souls’ damnation than he was guilty of the sins they committed earlier, for which they’re now being punished.

Original: Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own.
Modern: Every subject owes his duty to the king, but every person’s soul belongs to himself alone.

Original: Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience:
Modern: Therefore, every soldier in battle should do what every sick person does on his deathbed: cleanse every speck of sin from his conscience.

Original: and dying so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
Modern: And dying in that spiritually clean state, death becomes a benefit to him; or if he doesn’t die, the time spent preparing his soul was blessed time well spent.

Original: and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach others how they should prepare.
Modern: And for the man who survives, it’s fair to think that because he made himself so freely available to God, God allowed him to live through that day to witness His glory and to teach others how they should prepare themselves.

In Act IV, Scene 1 of “Henry V,” King Henry disguises himself in a borrowed cloak and walks among his soldiers on the night before the Battle of Agincourt. He encounters several groups of men, including Pistol, who does not recognize the king and speaks boldly to him. Henry then comes upon three common soldiers—John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael Williams—with whom he engages in a serious debate about the king’s responsibility for the souls of men who die in battle. The soldiers argue that if the king’s cause is not just, he bears a heavy reckoning for the deaths of his men, while Henry (still in disguise) contends that each man is responsible for his own soul and that the king cannot be held accountable for the spiritual state of every soldier who dies in his service.

The debate grows heated, and Williams and the disguised king exchange gloves as a pledge to continue their quarrel after the battle, each promising to strike the other if they meet again wearing the token. After the soldiers depart, Henry is left alone and delivers a soliloquy reflecting on the burdens of kingship, contemplating how ceremony and the trappings of royalty provide no real comfort or advantage over common men, who can sleep soundly while the king must bear the weight of responsibility for all his subjects. His meditation is interrupted by Sir Thomas Erpingham and other nobles who summon him to prepare for the coming battle, and Henry then kneels in prayer, asking God not to punish his army for the sins his father committed in seizing the crown.

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.