Original: I have been studying how I may compare
Modern: I’ve been trying to figure out how I can compare

Original: This prison where I live unto the world:
Modern: This prison where I’m living to the outside world:

Original: And for because the world is populous
Modern: And since the world is full of people

Original: And here is not a creature but myself,
Modern: And here there’s no living thing except me,

Original: I cannot do it; yet I’ll hammer it out.
Modern: I can’t make the comparison; but I’ll keep working at it.

Original: My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
Modern: I’ll make my brain act like the mother to my soul,

Original: My soul the father; and these two beget
Modern: My soul the father; and these two will create

Original: A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
Modern: A whole family of thoughts that keep multiplying,

Original: And these same thoughts people this little world,
Modern: And these same thoughts fill up this small world of mine,

Original: In humours like the people of this world,
Modern: With different moods just like people in the real world,

Original: For no thought is contented. The better sort,
Modern: Because no thought is ever satisfied. The noble ones,

Original: As thoughts of things divine, are intermix’d
Modern: Like thoughts about God and heaven, get mixed up

Original: With scruples and do set the word itself Against the word:
Modern: With doubts and make one Bible verse fight against another:

Original: As thus, ‘Come, little ones,’ and then again,
Modern: Like this: ‘Come to me, children,’ but then again,

Original: ‘It is as hard to come as for a camel
Modern: ‘It’s as hard to get to heaven as for a camel

Original: To thread the postern of a small needle’s eye.’
Modern: To squeeze through the tiny hole of a needle’s eye.’

Original: Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Modern: Thoughts about being ambitious plot and scheme

Original: Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
Modern: Impossible miracles; how these useless weak fingernails

Original: May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Modern: Might claw a way through the stone-hard bars

Original: Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
Modern: Of this harsh world, these crumbling prison walls,

Original: And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Modern: And since they can’t succeed, they die from their own arrogance.

Original: Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
Modern: Thoughts that try to be satisfied fool themselves

Original: That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
Modern: Into thinking they’re not the first victims of bad luck,

Original: Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars
Modern: And won’t be the last; like foolish beggars

Original: Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
Modern: Who sitting in public punishment hide their shame

Original: That many have and others must sit there;
Modern: By remembering that many others have been there too;

Original: And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Modern: And in this thought they find some comfort,

Original: Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Modern: Carrying their own bad luck on the shoulders

Original: Of such as have before endured the like.
Modern: Of those who have suffered the same things before.

Original: Thus play I in one person many people,
Modern: So I play many different characters all by myself,

Original: And none contented: sometimes am I king;
Modern: And none of them are happy: sometimes I’m a king;

Original: Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
Modern: Then thoughts of betrayal make me wish I was a beggar,

Original: And so I am: then crushing penury
Modern: And so I become one: then terrible poverty

Original: Persuades me I was better when a king;
Modern: Convinces me I was better off when I was king;

Original: Then am I king’d again: and by and by
Modern: Then I’m a king again: and soon after

Original: Think that I am unking’d by Bolingbroke,
Modern: I remember that Bolingbroke took away my crown,

Original: And straight am nothing: but whate’er I be,
Modern: And immediately I’m nothing: but whatever I am,

Original: Nor I nor any man that but man is
Modern: Neither I nor any person who is just human

Original: With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
Modern: Will be happy with having nothing, until he finds peace

Original: With being nothing. Music do I hear?
Modern: By becoming nothing. Do I hear music?

Original: Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
Modern: Ha, ha! Stay in rhythm: how bitter sweet music sounds

Original: When time is broke and no proportion kept!
Modern: When the timing is off and there’s no steady beat!

Original: So is it in the music of men’s lives.
Modern: That’s how it is with the rhythm of people’s lives.

Original: And here have I the daintiness of ear
Modern: And here I have such a sensitive ear

Original: To cheque time broke in a disorder’d string;
Modern: That I can hear when a broken string is out of tune;

Original: But for the concord of my state and time
Modern: But I couldn’t hear how my own life and circumstances

Original: Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
Modern: Were completely out of harmony with what they should be.

Original: I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
Modern: I wasted time, and now time is wasting me;

Original: For now hath time made me his numbering clock:
Modern: Because now time has turned me into his counting clock:

Original: My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
Modern: My thoughts are the minutes; and my sighs make them clash

Original: Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Modern: As they tick away, reaching my eyes, which are like the clock face,

Original: Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Modern: Where my finger, like a clock hand,

Original: Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Modern: Keeps moving as I wipe away the tears.

Original: Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
Modern: Now listen, the sound that tells what time it is

Original: Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart,
Modern: Are my loud groans, which beat against my heart,

Original: Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans
Modern: Which acts like the bell: so sighs and tears and groans

Original: Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time
Modern: Mark the minutes, hours, and time passing: but my time

Original: Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,
Modern: Races forward in Bolingbroke’s triumphant happiness,

Original: While I stand fooling here, his Jack o’ the clock.
Modern: While I stand here like a fool, his mechanical clock figure.

Original: This music mads me; let it sound no more;
Modern: This music is driving me crazy; make it stop;

Original: For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
Modern: Because even though it has helped crazy people become sane,

Original: In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Modern: For me it seems like it will make sane people go crazy.

Original: Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
Modern: But blessings on whoever is playing it for me!

Original: For ‘tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Modern: Because it’s a sign of love; and love for Richard

Original: Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.
Modern: Is like a rare jewel in this world full of hatred.

In Act V, Scene 5 of Richard II, the deposed king finds himself imprisoned in Pomfret Castle, alone with his thoughts. Richard reflects on his current state, comparing his prison cell to the world and attempting to populate his solitude with various imagined personas - sometimes playing the king, sometimes the beggar, but finding satisfaction in none of these roles. He contemplates the nature of time, how it moves differently for different people, and struggles with the ambition that still stirs within him despite his fall from power. His philosophical musings are interrupted by music playing nearby, which initially pleases him but then irritates him when it falls out of time, leading him to draw parallels between the discord in music and the disorder in his own life and realm.

The scene takes a dramatic turn when a former groom of Richard’s stable enters to visit his fallen master. The groom speaks affectionately of Richard’s beloved horse Roan Barbary, revealing that the horse now carries Bolingbroke (now Henry IV) and seemed proud to do so on coronation day. This news deeply wounds Richard, who feels betrayed even by his faithful horse. After the groom departs, a keeper arrives with food, but when Richard discovers the food has not been tasted for poison as was customary, he becomes suspicious. Sir Pierce Exton and other murderers then burst in to kill Richard. The former king fights valiantly, managing to kill two of his attackers before Exton strikes him down. Richard dies cursing Exton and calling upon Exton’s soul to be as damned as his own, marking the violent end of the last Plantagenet king’s life.

Richard II opens with King Richard presiding over a dispute between Henry Bolingbroke (John of Gaunt’s son) and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Both men accuse each other of treason, and when Richard cannot reconcile them, he arranges a trial by combat. However, just as the combat is about to begin, Richard stops the fight and banishes both men from England - Mowbray for life and Bolingbroke for six years, later reduced to four.

When John of Gaunt falls ill and dies, Richard seizes his lands and wealth to fund his wars in Ireland, effectively disinheriting Bolingbroke. This act alienates the nobility, who fear their own inheritances are now at risk. While Richard departs for his Irish campaign, Bolingbroke returns from exile with an army, ostensibly to reclaim his rightful inheritance. He quickly gains support from discontented nobles, including the Duke of York, who was left as regent in Richard’s absence.

Richard returns from Ireland to find his support has collapsed and his army has dispersed. After a series of encounters, including a pivotal scene at Flint Castle where Richard realizes his situation is hopeless, he agrees to abdicate. In a formal ceremony at Westminster, Richard hands over his crown to Bolingbroke, who becomes King Henry IV. Richard is imprisoned in Pomfret Castle, where he is eventually murdered by Sir Pierce Exton, who believes he is carrying out Henry’s wishes. The play ends with Henry expressing regret over Richard’s death and vowing to journey to the Holy Land to atone for his indirect role in the former king’s murder.