Original: Sweet mistress,’what your name is else, I know not,
Modern: Sweet lady, I don’t know what your name is,

Original: Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine,
Modern: And I’m amazed that you somehow know mine,

Original: Less in your knowledge and your grace you show not
Modern: You display just as much wisdom and beauty

Original: Than our earth’s wonder; more than earth divine.
Modern: As any earthly marvel; you’re more than human, almost divine.

Original: Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak:
Modern: Teach me, beautiful being, how to think and speak properly:

Original: Lay open to my earthy-gross conceit,
Modern: Explain to my crude, earthly understanding,

Original: Smother’d in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
Modern: Which is buried in mistakes, weak, shallow, and limited,

Original: The folded meaning of your words’ deceit.
Modern: The hidden meaning behind your confusing words.

Original: Against my soul’s pure truth why labour you
Modern: Why do you work so hard against what my soul knows is true

Original: To make it wander in an unknown field?
Modern: To make me confused and lost?

Original: Are you a god? would you create me new?
Modern: Are you a goddess? Do you want to remake me completely?

Original: Transform me then, and to your power I’ll yield.
Modern: Then change me, and I’ll surrender to your power.

Original: But if that I am I, then well I know
Modern: But if I’m still myself, then I know for certain

Original: Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,
Modern: Your crying sister is not my wife,

Original: Nor to her bed no homage do I owe:
Modern: And I owe her no devotion or loyalty in marriage:

Original: Far more, far more, to you do I decline.
Modern: I’m much more drawn to you instead.

Original: O! train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
Modern: Oh! Don’t lure me, sweet mermaid, with your song,

Original: To drown me in thy sister flood of tears:
Modern: To drown me in the flood of your sister’s tears:

Original: Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote:
Modern: Sing for yourself, enchanting siren, and I’ll be completely devoted:

Original: Spread o’er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
Modern: Spread your golden hair over the silver waves,

Original: And as a bed I’ll take them and there lie;
Modern: And I’ll use them as a bed and lie there;

Original: And, in that glorious supposition think
Modern: And in that wonderful fantasy, I’ll believe

Original: He gains by death that hath such means to die:
Modern: That someone who can die in such a way has actually won:

Original: Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!
Modern: Let Love itself be drowned if it’s going to be so fickle!

In Act III, Scene 2 of “The Comedy of Errors,” Antipholus of Syracuse encounters Luciana, who believes him to be her brother-in-law Antipholus of Ephesus. Luciana chides him for his apparent coldness toward his wife Adriana (her sister) and urges him to show more affection, even if only through pretense. She argues that men should at least maintain the appearance of love in marriage to preserve their wives’ honor and happiness. Antipholus of Syracuse, completely bewildered by her words since he knows nothing of any wife, becomes enchanted by Luciana herself and begins to woo her passionately, declaring his love and asking her to be his guide in this strange place.

Luciana is horrified by what she perceives as her brother-in-law’s attempt to seduce her and flees, threatening to tell her sister Adriana about his advances. Left alone, Antipholus of Syracuse encounters Dromio of Syracuse, who has just returned from his own confusing encounter with Nell, the kitchen wench who claims him as her husband. Dromio describes Nell in grotesque terms, comparing parts of her body to various countries in an extended geographical metaphor. Both master and servant conclude they must be in a place of sorcery and decide they should leave Ephesus immediately to escape what they believe to be enchantments and witchcraft.

The Comedy of Errors centers on two sets of identical twins separated in infancy during a shipwreck. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus, unknowing that Antipholus’s twin brother (Antipholus of Ephesus) and his servant (Dromio of Ephesus) live there. The Syracuse visitors are unaware of local laws that condemn Syracusans to death unless they pay a heavy fine, though the Duke grants Antipholus of Syracuse until evening to find the money.

The confusion begins immediately when the wrong Dromio approaches Antipholus of Syracuse, speaking of dinner and a wife waiting at home. Meanwhile, Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife Adriana and her sister Luciana encounter what they believe is Adriana’s husband (actually his twin), leading Adriana to drag the bewildered Syracuse twin home for dinner. The errors multiply as both masters beat the wrong servants, money and gold chains are given to and demanded from the wrong people, and Antipholus of Syracuse finds himself locked out of his own home while his twin dines inside with his wife.

The chaos escalates when a goldsmith demands payment from Antipholus of Syracuse for a chain delivered to his twin, leading to an arrest. Adriana, believing her husband has gone mad, calls for Dr. Pinch to exorcise him, while both Dromios suffer beatings and confusion from their mistaken identities. The resolution comes when old Egeon, condemned to die at sunset for being a Syracusan in Ephesus, recognizes both Antipholus twins as his sons. The Abbess of the local priory reveals herself to be Emilia, Egeon’s long-lost wife and the twins’ mother, reuniting the family and resolving all the mistaken identities. The Duke pardons Egeon, the twins are reconciled with their respective lives, and order is restored to Ephesus.