Touchstone in "As You Like It"

As You Like It features, like so many of Shakespe ares plays, a pass account clown, bill, and its worth paying some attention to his role for what it contributes towards establishing and maintaining the welfare comic spirit of the play. For the fool is the constant commentator on what is going on. His modality, pointed or otherwise, thus inevitably contributes to the audiences awareness of what is happening, and the counsel in which other characters treat him is often a key indicator of their sensibilities.

Touchstone is one of the gentlest and happiest clowns in all of Shakespeare. He comments on the action, makes jokes at other peoples expense, and offers ironic insights about their situation. But end-to-end As You Like It, such traditional roles of the fool are offered and taken with a generosity of spirit so that his remarks neer shake the firm comic energies of the play. When he ridicules Orlandos verses, Rosalind laughs along with him. When he points out to Corin (in 3.2) that the shepherd must be damned for never having lived at court, Corin takes it as good natured jesting (which it is). When Touchstone takes Audrey out-of-door from her rural swain, William, there are apparently no disfranchised feelings (although much here depends on the staging).



In this play, the professional jester participates in and contributes to a style of social interaction which is unconditional by any more sober and serious reflections. This makes Touchstone very different from the bitter fool of King Lear or from the most complex fool of all, the sad Feste of Twelfth darkness , both of whom offer comments that cast either a shrewd, melancholy, or bitter irony on the proceedings.

Touchstone himself becomes the target of much humour by his immediate attraction to Audrey, the foul country lass.

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