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- Title
"I do play the touch": Touchstone and Testing in As You Like It.
- Authors
Weindling, Lauren
- Abstract
This article takes as its subject a philological explication of the name of Touchstone, the fool in William Shakespeare's As You Like It , unpacking its connotations by tracking its usage in early modern print material. Literally a stone used to test gold's purity, the touchstone's metaphorical usage reveals a cultural desire to know true from feigning and likewise intimates violent interrogation when addressing the Jesuit threat to Queen Elizabeth's rule. This enlarged context illuminates a critique of this epistemological method in Touchstone's comedy. There is no certain method to test others, for identity and allegiance are not innate qualities exposed with violent pressure but products of verbal play. Moreover, this method presupposes, then fabricates, guilt.
- Subjects
AS You Like It (Play : Shakespeare); CONNOTATION (Linguistics); PHILOLOGY; METAPHOR; GUILT (Psychology); ELIZABETHAN (Literary period)
- Publication
Studies in Philology, 2024, Vol 121, Issue 1, p135
- ISSN
0039-3738
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1353/sip.2024.a919345