Which he an heir-loom left unto the English throne.
Drayton, Polyolbion, xi. (1613).
Touchstone, a clown filled with “quips and cranks and wanton wiles.” The original of this character was Tarlton, the favorite court jester of Queen Elizabeth.--Shakespeare, As You Like It (1598).
His famous speech is “the seven degrees of affront:” (1) the retort courteous, (2) the quip modest, (3) the reply churlish, (4) the reproof valiant, (5) the counter-check quarrelsome, (6) the lie circumstantial, (7) the lie direct (act v. sc. 4).
Touchwood (Colonel), “the most passionate, impatient, unreasonable, good-natured man in Christendom.” Uncle of Major and Clarissa Touchwood.
Sophia Touchwood, the colonel’s daughter, in love with her cousin, Major Touchwood. Her father wants her to marry Colonel Clifford, but the colonel has fixed his heart on Clarissa, the major’s sister.
Major Touchwood, nephew of Colonel Touchwood, and in love with his cousin, Sophia, the colonel’s daughter. He fancies that Colonel Clifford is his rival, but Clifford is in love with Clarissa, the major’s sister. This error forms the plot of the farce, and the mistakes which arise when the major dresses up to pass himself off for his uncle constitute its fun and entanglement.
Clarissa Touchwood, the major’s sister, in love with Colonel Clifford. They first met at Brighton, and the colonel thought her Christian name was Sophia; hence the major looked on him as a rival.--T. Dibdin, What Next?
Touchwood (Lord), uncle of Melle´font (2 syl.).
Lady Touchwood, his wife, sister of Sir Paul Pliant. She entertains a criminal passion for her nephew, Mellefont, and, because he repels her advances, vows to ruin him. Accordingly, she tells her husband that the young man has sought to dishonor her, and when his lordship fancies that the statement of his wife must be greatly overstated, he finds Mellefont with Lady Touchwood in her own private chamber. This seems to corroborate the accusation laid to his charge, but it was an artful trick of Maskwell’s to make mischief, and in a short time a conversation which he overhears between Lady Touchwood and Maskwell reveals the whole infamous scheme most fully to the husband.--Congreve, The Double Dealer (1700).