⁂ Dr. Johnson was the last person touched. The touch-piece given to him has on one side this legend, _Soli Deo gloria_, and on the other side, _Anna D: G. M. BR. F: et H. REG._ (“Anne, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, queen”). Our good Edward he, the Confessor and king ... That cancred evil cured, bred ’twixt the throat and jaws, When physic could not find the remedy nor cause ... He of Almighty God obtained by earnest prayer, This tumor by a king might curêd be alone, 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).