The two gentlemen of the title are Valentine and Proteus. Valentine leaves Verona to visit Padua, where he soon finds his lustful affections engaged by a honey of an aristocratic lady who is not at all averse to his favors. Valentine, joining him several scenes later, falls for the same high-born lady. The classical triangle is sent spinning when Valentine's lady love puts on man's attire to pay an unexpected visit. Even Lance finds romance when he devises a comic resume of the attributes of a lower-class girl "whose faults exceed her hairs".