# Scene I explained — As You Like It

> Chapter companion for As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

Touchstone and Audrey discuss the priest Sir Oliver Martext. Touchstone confronts William, a young man who claims Audrey, and threatens him into leaving. Corin then arrives to summon them away.

## Themes in this chapter

### Disguise and Deception

Touchstone uses rhetorical tricks and verbal disguise to assert dominance over William, masking threats in clever wordplay.

### Love and Marriage

The rivalry between Touchstone and William over Audrey highlights the comedic pursuit of marriage in the forest.

## Character check-ins

### Touchstone

Touchstone asserts his claim to Audrey and intimidates William with witty threats.

### Audrey

Audrey is patient with Touchstone and dismisses William's interest in her.

### William

William, a young forest dweller, claims Audrey but is frightened off by Touchstone.

### Corin

Corin enters to summon Touchstone and Audrey to their master and mistress.

## Key lines

> The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

A fool believes he is wise, but a truly wise person recognizes his own foolishness.

_Touchstone uses this proverb to undermine William's self-assessment of having 'a pretty wit.'_

> to have, is to have; for it is a figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your writers do consent that ipse is he: now, you are not ipse, for I am he.

Having something means possessing it; just as pouring drink from a cup into a glass empties one and fills the other, so 'ipse' means 'he himself'—and you are not that 'he,' I am.

_Touchstone uses convoluted logic and rhetoric to claim that he, not William, is the rightful 'he' who will marry Audrey._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/as_you_like_it_se/chapters