Compliments

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 232 Report by E. W. Fordham

' Come into the garden; I want my roses to see you.' Could a more graceful conaliment be paid to anyone? A prize of £5 was offered for the most charming compliment submitted, which could be either quoted or original.

The 'roses' compliment, as doubtless all competitors knew (although I did not), is attributed to R. B. Sheridan, and is an example of delicate flattery to a living friend. Can a eulogy of the dead be properly, des- cribed as a compliment? I think not. Compliments are for the living; tributes for the dead.

I have before me a vast number of charming compliments, and many splendid tributes. The latter I reluctantly discard. Of the former I should like to quote several dozen, but space forbids. However, two small children's sayings must come in here : 'Mummy,' said a little boy to his mother, after saying his prayers, 'I hope God is like you' (G. H. E.). And a little g'rl once observed, 'Oh, Mummy, it never seems sun- shiny till you come into the room' (F. D. Merralls). Again, there are short, crisp compliments, like lightning flashes, as when Disraeli said to Queen Victoria, 'We authors, Ma'am' (B. K. Levy). Also this : ' Will you do something for me?' with the reply, 'Not, Will I7—May I?' (D. Naylor).

And now for the prizes—each entry is primes inter pares. I therefore allot £1 to each of the following: the Rev. Canon R. F. Pechey and P. Addison Devis, both of whom sent, in slightly differing words, the reply of Mr. Choate to his hostess (only the first of these is printed), Sir Norman Birkett, Neil Smith and R. Kennard Davis.

Other commended entries, besides those printed, were from J. R. Sisson, A. M. Sayers, Mrs. J. Stewart Ferguson, F. D. Merralls, E. A. Hamilton, Dorothy Curtis, the Rev. P. A. Schofield, Esme Murray-Speakman, Mrs. P. M. Arnold and the Ven. P. Hartill. I wish I could quote them.

Finally, why did no one quote Belloc's exquisite lines—`To a Sleeping Friend'?

PRIZES

(REV. CANON R. F. PECHEY)

It is said of a former American Ambassador, Mr. Choate, that his hostess, at dinner, asked kim, 'If you were not yourself, who would you rather be?' Looking across to his wife, with a graceful gesture he replied, 'Mrs. Choate's second husband.'

(SIR NORMAN BIRKETT)

(From The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys by Franklin P. Adams)

Thursday, April 23rd, 1925 . • . A fine warm day, but I at my stint all the day, and so uptown and met Nell Wylie the poet, and said, 'Guess whose birthday this is,' and she said, 'Yours?' and I said `No, but you are getting warm.' Shakespeare's,' she said. Which was the prettiest compliment I had had all day. . . .

(NEIL SMITH)

(Claire Luce to the Queen in 1940) (R. KENNARD DAVIS) At the wedding reception, one of the guests found himself next to the grand-parents of the bride. To make conversation, he asked, 'Where did you spend your honeymoon?'

The old man answered, with a glance at his wife, 'Oh, we had a fortnight in Scotland, and the other forty-seven years here in Wigan.'

COMMENDED

(WENDY DAVENPORT)

A forlorn little boy clung to his governess who was leaving, and cried, 'Dear, dear Nanny, how 1 wish you were dead—then I could have you stuffed and keep you with me always.'

(T. H HERINGA-SCHLIMING)

Anniversary greetings from a husband to his wife: love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.'

(ALLAN M. LAINO)

An old Russian gentleman, on being intro- duced to the mother of five daughters, remarked: `Madam, I am charmed to meet the author of so many beautiful editions.'