Original: Shame and confusion! all is on the rout;
Modern: This is disgraceful and chaotic! Everyone is running away in retreat;

Original: Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds
Modern: Fear creates chaos, and that chaos hurts us

Original: Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell,
Modern: When it should protect us. Oh war, you devil’s offspring,

Original: Whom angry heavens do make their minister
Modern: You whom the angry gods use as their agent

Original: Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
Modern: Put into the cold, cowardly hearts of our soldiers

Original: Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly.
Modern: Burning coals of revenge! Don’t let any soldier run away.

Original: He that is truly dedicate to war
Modern: A man who is truly committed to war

Original: Hath no self-love, nor he that loves himself
Modern: Has no concern for his own safety, and a man who does love himself

Original: Hath not essentially but by circumstance
Modern: Doesn’t truly have, but only by accident,

Original: The name of valour.
Modern: The title of being brave.

Original: O, let the vile world end,
Modern: Oh, let this horrible world end,

Original: And the premised flames of the last day
Modern: And let the promised fires of Judgment Day

Original: Knit earth and heaven together!
Modern: Join earth and heaven as one!

Original: Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,
Modern: Now let the angel’s trumpet sound its call,

Original: Particularities and petty sounds
Modern: Individual voices and small noises

Original: To cease! Wast thou ordain’d, dear father,
Modern: Should stop! Were you destined, dear father,

Original: To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve
Modern: To spend your youth in peacetime, and to earn

Original: The silver livery of advised age,
Modern: The gray hair of wise old age,

Original: And, in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus
Modern: And in your honored and elderly years, like this

Original: To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight
Modern: To die in this brutal battle? Just from seeing this

Original: My heart is turn’d to stone: and while ‘tis mine,
Modern: My heart has turned to stone: and as long as I live,

Original: It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
Modern: It will stay hardened. York doesn’t spare our old men;

Original: No more will I their babes: tears virginal
Modern: So I won’t spare their children: the tears of virgins

Original: Shall be to me even as the dew to fire,
Modern: Will be to me like drops of water on fire,

Original: And beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims
Modern: And beauty that often softens a tyrant’s heart

Original: Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.
Modern: Will only fuel my burning rage like oil and kindling.

Original: Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:
Modern: From now on I will have nothing to do with mercy:

Original: Meet I an infant of the house of York,
Modern: If I meet a baby from the York family,

Original: Into as many gobbets will I cut it
Modern: I’ll cut it into as many pieces

Original: As wild Medea young Absyrtus did:
Modern: As the savage Medea did to young Absyrtus:

Original: In cruelty will I seek out my fame.
Modern: I will become famous through cruelty.

Original: Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford’s house:
Modern: Come, you who represent the new destruction of Clifford’s family:

Original: As did AEneas old Anchises bear,
Modern: Just as Aeneas carried his elderly father Anchises,

Original: So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders;
Modern: So I carry you on my strong shoulders;

Original: But then AEneas bare a living load,
Modern: But Aeneas carried a living burden,

Original: Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.
Modern: Nothing as heavy as this grief of mine.

Henry VI, Part II opens with King Henry VI’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou, which was arranged as part of a peace treaty with France. The marriage proves politically disastrous, as Henry has agreed to surrender Maine and Anjou to France and provide no dowry, angering the English nobles. The Duke of Gloucester, Henry’s uncle and Lord Protector, opposes the marriage terms, while Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Suffolk, who arranged the marriage, work to undermine Gloucester’s influence. Queen Margaret quickly emerges as an ambitious figure who resents Gloucester’s power and begins plotting against him alongside Suffolk and other nobles.

The central conflict develops around the destruction of Gloucester, known as “Good Duke Humphrey.” Through a series of machinations involving his wife Eleanor’s involvement with conjurers and fortune-tellers, Gloucester is stripped of his position as Lord Protector. Eleanor is banished after being convicted of witchcraft, leaving Gloucester vulnerable. Margaret, Suffolk, Cardinal Beaufort, and others conspire to have Gloucester arrested on charges of treason. Before he can defend himself in trial, Gloucester is murdered in his bed, likely on Suffolk’s orders, shocking King Henry and the common people who loved Gloucester.

The aftermath of Gloucester’s murder destabilizes the realm further. Suffolk is banished by Henry after popular outcry against him, but he is captured and killed by pirates during his exile. Cardinal Beaufort dies tormented by guilt over Gloucester’s death. Meanwhile, Jack Cade leads a popular rebellion in Kent, claiming to be John Mortimer and demanding justice for the common people. Cade’s forces march on London, causing chaos and executing several nobles and officials before the rebellion is eventually suppressed. The play concludes with the return of Richard, Duke of York, from Ireland with an army, ostensibly to remove the remaining “traitors” around the king but actually to press his own claim to the throne, setting the stage for the Wars of the Roses that will dominate the final play in the trilogy.