Touchstone: A touchstone is a word for a criterion, or method of gauging something. In the Renaissance it was used as a test for the purity of gold and silver. As a function in the play, Touchstone becomes a standard of measure for the foolishness of other character. He draws humor by looking at the absurdities of the games people play, the irony being that he himself is the most ridiculous character of the play.

Silvius: Derived from the from the Latin "silva" meaning "woods", "forest" and "of the forest". Shakespeare may have first encountered this name in Virgil's Aeneid. Silvius' passion recalls that of Endimion, the shepherd in the John Lyly's eponymous play, who is consumed by "melancholy passions, carelesse behaviour, untamed thoughts, and unbridled affections" for Phebe.

Corin: This is Corin's name in the play, but is also a byword for a shepherd or shepherdess

fantasie: affections

Wearing: exhausting

in thy Mistris praise: by praising your mistress

Phebe: Phebe is "the Moone so called because she is Phebus sister" and is emblematic of both female chasity and inconstancy.