The Queen of Repartee.

In case anybody hasn’t heard this story (and I expect most Americans will have done,) I wanted to throw it into the ring as one of my favourites.

The noted author and wit, Dorothy Parker, was walking through a New York department store. As she approached one of the doors, a rival was approaching it at the same time. The other woman was younger and offered right of way with the words:

‘After you. Age before beauty.’

Dorothy accepted with the retort:

‘Thank you. Pearls before swine.’

Such repartee. She’s one of a very small number of people on my list of ideal dinner party guests. Wendy put me up to thinking about this.

On a more prosaic (and working-class English) note, somebody once told me that he overheard a conversation between two old men. One asked the other:

‘’Ere, Bert, what’s repartee?’

‘Well,’ said Bert, giving the question earnest consideration, ‘you know when you ’ad a go at that bloke in the street the other day, and ’ee told you to bugger off?’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s repartee.’