Original: Set down, set down your honourable load,
Modern: Put down, put down this noble body,

Original: If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
Modern: If honor can be wrapped up in a coffin,

Original: Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
Modern: While I respectfully mourn for a while

Original: The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
Modern: The early death of good King Henry.

Original: Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
Modern: Poor ice-cold body of a saintly king!

Original: Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Modern: You pale remains of the Lancaster family!

Original: Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Modern: You drained corpse of that royal bloodline!

Original: Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
Modern: Let it be right that I call upon your spirit,

Original: To hear the lamentations of Poor Anne,
Modern: To hear the cries of grief from poor Anne,

Original: Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter’d son,
Modern: Wife to your Edward, to your murdered son,

Original: Stabb’d by the selfsame hand that made these wounds!
Modern: Stabbed by the same hand that made these wounds on you!

Original: Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
Modern: Look, into these wounds that let your life escape,

Original: I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
Modern: I pour the useless healing of my tears.

Original: Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes!
Modern: May the hand that made these deadly wounds be cursed!

Original: Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it!
Modern: May the heart that had the cruelty to do this be cursed!

Original: Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
Modern: Cursed be the person who spilled this blood!

Original: More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
Modern: May more terrible misfortune happen to that hated monster,

Original: That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Modern: Who makes us miserable by killing you,

Original: Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Modern: Than I could wish on snakes, spiders, toads,

Original: Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives!
Modern: Or any crawling poisonous creature that exists!

Original: If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Modern: If he ever has a child, may it be stillborn,

Original: Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Modern: Monstrous, and born before its time,

Original: Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
Modern: Whose hideous and freakish appearance

Original: May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
Modern: Will terrify the expecting mother when she sees it;

Original: And that be heir to his unhappiness!
Modern: And may that child inherit all his misery!

Original: If ever he have wife, let her he made
Modern: If he ever has a wife, let her be made

Original: A miserable by the death of him
Modern: As miserable by his death

Original: As I am made by my poor lord and thee!
Modern: As I have been made by my dear husband and you!

Original: Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
Modern: Come, now let’s go to Chertsey with this sacred body,

Original: Taken from Paul’s to be interred there;
Modern: Taken from St. Paul’s to be buried there;

Original: And still, as you are weary of the weight,
Modern: And whenever you get tired from the weight,

Original: Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
Modern: Rest yourselves, while I mourn over King Henry’s corpse.

In Act I, Scene 2 of Richard III, Lady Anne accompanies the corpse of King Henry VI as it is being transported for burial. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, interrupts the funeral procession and dismisses the guards. Anne verbally attacks Richard, cursing him for murdering both Henry VI and his son Edward, Prince of Wales, to whom she had been betrothed. Richard responds by claiming he killed them out of love for her, arguing that her beauty drove him to these acts. Despite her initial horror and repeated curses—she even spits at him—Richard persists in his suit, offering her his sword and baring his chest, inviting her to kill him if she truly hates him.

Anne finds herself unable to strike Richard, and he seizes upon this hesitation. Richard presents her with a ring and convinces her to accept it, successfully wooing her despite her continued expressions of hatred and grief. After Anne departs, allowing Richard to arrange for Henry VI’s burial, Richard delivers a soliloquy marveling at his own success in winning over a woman whose husband and father-in-law he murdered. He expresses amazement at his persuasive abilities and his capacity to make Anne forget her hatred, noting with satisfaction that he accomplished this feat despite his physical deformities, which he had previously claimed made him unfit for love.

Richard III opens with Richard, Duke of Gloucester, revealing his villainous intentions to claim the throne of England. Despite his physical deformities, he is determined to remove all obstacles to his coronation. He begins by manipulating his brother Clarence into imprisonment and death, convincing King Edward IV that Clarence poses a threat. Richard also courts Lady Anne, widow of Prince Edward (whom Richard killed), successfully wooing her despite having murdered both her husband and father-in-law. When King Edward IV dies, Richard is named Lord Protector for the young Prince Edward, heir to the throne.

Richard systematically eliminates his rivals and supporters of the rightful heirs. He has Lord Hastings executed for opposing his claim to the throne, and convinces the Duke of Buckingham to help him secure power. Richard and Buckingham spread rumors about the legitimacy of Edward IV’s children, claiming they are bastards. They stage a public scene where Richard reluctantly accepts the crown after appearing to refuse it. Once crowned King Richard III, he orders the murder of the two young princes (Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York) in the Tower of London, though their deaths occur offstage.

Richard’s reign becomes increasingly tyrannical and unstable. The Duke of Buckingham eventually rebels against him and is captured and executed. Richard attempts to consolidate power by proposing to marry Elizabeth of York, his niece, but faces growing opposition. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, lands in England with an army to claim the throne. The play culminates in the Battle of Bosworth Field, where Richard is haunted by the ghosts of all those he has murdered. Richmond defeats and kills Richard in battle, then marries Elizabeth of York to unite the warring houses of Lancaster and York, establishing the Tudor dynasty and bringing peace to England.