Original: Then, I confess,
Modern: So, I admit,

Original: Here on my knee, before high heaven and you
Modern: Here kneeling before God and you

Original: That before you, and next unto high heaven,
Modern: That to you, and second only to God,

Original: I love your son.
Modern: I love your son.

Original: My friends were poor, but honest; so’s my love:
Modern: My family was poor, but honorable; and so is my love:

Original: Be not offended, for it hurts not him
Modern: Don’t be upset, because it doesn’t harm him

Original: That he is lov’d of me: I follow him not
Modern: That I love him: I don’t chase after him

Original: By any token of presumptuous suit;
Modern: With any bold or forward advances;

Original: Nor would I have him till I do deserve him;
Modern: And I wouldn’t want to have him until I’m worthy of him;

Original: Yet never know how that desert should be.
Modern: Though I’ll never know how to become worthy enough.

Original: I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Modern: I know I love hopelessly, fighting against impossible odds;

Original: Yet, in this captious and intenible sieve
Modern: Yet, like pouring water into a basket with holes

Original: I still pour in the waters of my love,
Modern: I keep pouring out all my love,

Original: And lack not to lose still. Thus, Indian-like,
Modern: And never stop losing it. So like a native worshipper,

Original: Religious in mine error, I adore
Modern: Devoted to my mistake, I worship

Original: The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,
Modern: The sun, who sees the one who worships him,

Original: But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,
Modern: But doesn’t know anything about her. My dear lady,

Original: Let not your hate encounter with my love
Modern: Don’t let your hatred clash with my love

Original: For loving where you do: but, if yourself,
Modern: For loving the same person you do: but, if you yourself,

Original: Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Modern: Whose respected reputation proves your good character,

Original: Did ever in so true a flame of liking
Modern: Ever felt such a genuine, burning affection

Original: Wish chastely and love dearly, that your Dian
Modern: Wanting purely and loving deeply, so that your Diana

Original: Was both herself and Love; O! then, give pity
Modern: Was both the goddess of chastity and of love; Oh! then, have mercy

Original: To her, whose state is such that cannot choose
Modern: On someone whose situation means she has no choice

Original: But lend and give where she is sure to lose;
Modern: But to give her heart where she’s certain to lose;

Original: That seeks not to find that her search implies,
Modern: Who doesn’t try to get what her love suggests she wants,

Original: But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies.
Modern: But, like a puzzle, finds joy in the very thing that destroys her.

In Act I, Scene iii of “All’s Well That Ends Well,” the Countess of Rousillon receives a letter from her son Bertram, who has arrived at the French court. The Countess discusses the letter with her steward and clown, Lavatch, who entertains her with his witty wordplay and requests permission to marry Isbel, a servant in the household. The Countess grants his request, though she expresses some reservations about the match. During their conversation, Lavatch makes various jokes and puns, displaying his role as the comic fool of the household.

The scene’s focus then shifts dramatically when the Countess, having noticed Helena’s melancholy behavior, confronts her about her feelings for Bertram. Through skillful questioning, the Countess draws out Helena’s confession that she loves Bertram despite their difference in social rank. Helena reveals her deep affection for the young count in an extended monologue (beginning around line 111), expressing both her love and her awareness of the social barriers between them. The Countess, rather than disapproving, shows sympathy for Helena’s plight and becomes supportive of her feelings, setting up Helena’s later journey to court to attempt curing the King of France.

“All’s Well That Ends Well” follows Helena, a physician’s daughter living in the household of the Countess of Rousillon, who is deeply in love with the Countess’s son, Bertram. When the King of France falls gravely ill, Helena travels to court and offers to cure him using remedies learned from her late father. She succeeds in healing the King, who grants her any husband of her choosing as reward. Helena selects Bertram, but he reluctantly marries her and immediately departs for the wars in Italy, declaring he will never consummate the marriage until she can obtain his ancestral ring and bear his child - conditions he believes impossible to fulfill.

Helena returns to Rousillon, where she learns of Bertram’s conditions through a letter. Disguising herself as a pilgrim, she travels to Florence, where Bertram is staying and pursuing Diana, a young woman whose mother keeps a lodging house. Helena reveals her identity to Diana and her mother, proposing a bed trick: Diana will agree to meet Bertram secretly, but Helena will take her place in the darkness. During their encounter, Helena obtains Bertram’s ring and gives him another ring that the King had previously given her.

Helena spreads word of her own death and returns to France, where Bertram has come to seek a new wife with the King’s blessing. When Bertram presents Helena’s ring to his prospective bride, the King recognizes it and suspects Bertram of murdering Helena. Diana arrives and presents Bertram’s ring as proof of their relationship, leading to confusion until Helena appears, pregnant with Bertram’s child and wearing his family ring. Faced with the fulfillment of his impossible conditions, Bertram accepts Helena as his true wife, and the King promises to arrange Diana’s marriage to a suitable husband.