As You Like It | Touchstone
In the first excerpt, John Palmer discusses Touchstone's character in As You Like It. Palmer sees Touchstone as a wise fool who acts as a kind of guide or point of reference throughout the play, putting everyone, including himself, to the comic test. In the second excerpt, Enid Welsford regards Touchstone as a kind of intermediary between the playwright and the audience, and is literally what his name implies: a "test of the quality of men and manners."
John Palmer
[In the following excerpt, Palmer discusses Touchstone's character in As You Like It. According to the critic, Touchstone is a wise fool who acts as a kind of guide or point of reference throughout the play, putting everyone, including himself, to the comic test. This function is apparent in Touchstone's parodic exchanges with Corin, Silvius, Audrey, and—especially—Jaques, with whom the fool acts as a foil throughout the play. For further commentary on Touchstone's character, see the excerpts by Alfred Harbage, Kenneth Muir, John A. Hart, and Enid...
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