Baffling malice with ready answers

Motif

Baffling malice with ready answers.

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever verbal retorts (repartee). · Clever verbal retorts – general. · view the constellation · filed as J1251

Filed across the traditions

English Child I 20–22, 485, III 496, IV 440.

Within the index

Filed under Clever verbal retorts – general.

1 finer motif beneath it

Humiliated lover in repartee with disdainful mistress. (Cf. K1225.1, K1326.1.)

Filed beside it

Quibbling answers. E.g., Where are you going? – Forward. Where are you going to cut the tree? – At the foot Evading a direct answer which may trap one Answering only "yes" and "no"

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