From Oscar Wilde's *The Critic as Artist* (1891). Select the word that fits the blank. "Mr. Secretary Pepys has chattered his way into the circle of the Immortals, and, conscious that ______ is the better part of valour, bustles about among them in that 'shaggy purple gown with gold buttons and looped lace.'"

Wilde is inverting the proverb *discretion is the better part of valour* (Falstaff in *Henry IV Part 1*). The original says *discretion* is more valuable than reckless courage; Wilde swaps it to **indiscretion** because Pepys *chattered* his way to immortality by being indiscreet — telling everything, including his peccadilloes. The joke depends on recognising the substitution: discretion → indiscretion. - "Silence" misses the inversion. - "Discretion" gives the proverb straight; Wilde's wit is to invert it. - "Courage" duplicates *valour* and breaks the rhetorical move.