Understanding Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

The Buffoon is a character that …

1. has appetites (or desires) so strong that he cannot control them
2. is a minor figure in the play, or is relegated to a subplot
3. is controlled, either positively or negatively, by fate
4. relies on luck rather than skill or hard work
5. condemns his baseness but cannot relinquish it
6. is socially destructive or harmful
7. is harmful to himself
8. garners the sympathy of the audience

Touchwod Sr. becomes a victim of his own sexual appetites; and yet he also clearly realizes that his base desires will eventually lead to his ruin:

Life, every year a child, and some years two! Besides drinkings abroad, that’s never reckoned. This gear will not hold out. (II, i: 15-17)10

Touchwood also realizes that his base desires are socially destructive:

I have such a fatal finger in such business

I must forth with’t, chiefly for country wenches. For every harvest I shall hinder hay-making. (II, i: 59-61)

Thus, Touchwood is a buffoon because he allows his carnal appetite to ruin himself and others. His situation is absurd and laughable, yet there are is a