what is the character sketch of touchstone in As you like it?

Touchstone is a fictional
character in  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare">Shakespeare's
play  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It">As You Like
It. Touchstone is a natural fool in the court of Duke Frederick.
Throughout the play he comments on the other characters and thus, contributes to a
better understanding of the play. Touchstone falls in love with a dull-witted goat girl
named Audrey. William, an oafish country boy, makes clumsy attempts to woo her as well,
but is driven off by Touchstone, who threatens to kill him "a hundred and fifty ways."
Eventually Touchstone marries Audrey, but a prediction is made that the relationship
will not last.

Touchstone is often anachronistically
thought to be a witty or clever fool. However, it is referenced often in the text that
he is a "natural" fool ("Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of Nature's wit",
"hath sent this natural for our
whetstone").

In Shakespeare's
Clown,  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Wiles&action=edit&redlink=1">David
Wiles suggests that  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Armin">Robert Armin played the
part of Touchstone in the first productions of  href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It">As You Like
It (145). The addition of Armin to the  title="Chamberlain's Men"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain%27s_Men">Chamberlain's
Men in 1599 and the character of Touchstone marked the beginning of a series
of court fool characters; these characters differed greatly from earlier  title="Shakespearean fool"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_fool">Shakespearean
fools because their humour is mainly derived from the fool's wit and
intellect. The earlier fools of this period were often nothing but
stooges.