What is Repartee!

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2492, 15 August 1890, Page 2

What is Repartee!

Repartee is a sudden;flash. 1: It is turning a current of thought Hi an opposite direction. It is the upsetting of a train of thoughts. It is really >dbforminj a thought. Repartee is a case where one speaker makes a plain statement, aimed m a certain direction, which a hta'er collides with and reverses so as to shoot straight back at the speaker.- ---" What I want," said a pompous orator, aiming at his antagonist, "is good common sense." *' Exactly," was the whispered reply, "That's just what you need." Repartee is often very unkind, but its unkindness is excusable when the person indulging m it has been attacked. For instance, Abernethy, the famous surgeon, swore violently at a poor Irish pavior who had piled .some paving-stones on the Doctor's sidewalk. "Remove them!—away with them!" screamed Abernethy, with an oath. . "But wliere" shall I take them to?" asked Pat. "To hell with them!" exclaimed the doctor. " Hadn't I better take them to heaven? Sure, and they'd be more out of your honor's way there, said Pat," as he leaned on his spade. An instance of Unkind repartee is recorded of Charles Lamb. One day a loving mother brought* her beautiful golden-haired baby m to dinner m her arms. She w^s very proud of her I sweet babe, and, holding it up with pride and joy m her eyes, she said : .'" j " Mr' Lamb how do you like babies ?" <k I like em boiled, madam—boiled !" Of course that mother never loved Mr Lamb after that. The finest piece of repartee m the English language is the instance where two Irishmen were walking under the gibbet of Newgate. Looking up at the gibbet, one of them remarked : ! " Ah, Pat, where would you be if the I gibbet had done its duty V \ "Faith, Flannagan," said Pat, "and I'd be walking London—**»K alone ?" That is f> fine bit of repartee attributed to Douglas Jerrold : • "Have you seen my 'Descent Into Hell V " inquired an author, a great bore, who had written a book with a ijiery title, "No," replied Douglas Jerrojd^ I should like to."