First my (Hi) very grateful thanks to Ho for his solution to this difficult offering from Phi. I was sailing back from Devon in rough seas and not a little rain at the time the crossword came out and, when I had a chance to look at it, I found it very hard to get my mind back into crossword mode instead of thinking about navigation and boat-handling!
The rubric read:
12 clues do not lead to the answers entered in the relevant space. Instead they form 6 pairs; in each pair the entries are an anagram of the answers to the clues for that pair (e.g. clues to LANCET and MITRE would lead to the entries CENTRAL and ITEM). Lengths in brackets are for the entries (one of which is two words), not the clue answers. The 6 pairs of entries are 2- (in one case, 3-) word phrases from 6 of a set of 7 items – the central item, easily the most famous, is not so indicated, but solvers must highlight the 3 normally-clued entries forming its anagram.
The answers to be paired and anagrammed were 2A VAST, 7A HELD, 21A WING, 33A SEAPLANE, 36A CHIME, 45A FOSSIL, 1D SHOUT, 4D INSOMNIA, 5D MOTH, 6D WITTING, 32D GRAFT and 40D ALLOY.
Even knowing the answers, it is difficult to see how Ho managed to sort out the pairs and, as he has now departed on a holiday by rail, I don’t have the opportunity to ask! Please feel free to enlighten me with your thought processes in the comments below.
The pair that stood out to me (Hi) was CHIME (the only non-standard clue I managed to get in my brief attempt) and WITTING which give WITCHING TIME, a quote from Hamlet’s soliloquy after getting proof of the claim, by the ghost of his father, that he was murdered by Claudius. ” ‘Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world:”
So were they all quotes from Hamlet soliloquies? In which case the final one – the most famous – has to be “TO BE OR NOT TO BE”. And across row seven the “Central Item” of the title is 27A BOOT, 28A OTTER ,30A BONE. These three entries are the ones to be highlighted.
The other pairs are resolved below.
7A HELD + 45A FOSSIL make SOLID FLESH – Hamlet’s first soliloquy on the despair he feels about his mother’s marriage to his father’s brother two months after his father’s death – “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt . . .”
1D SHOUT and 40D ALLOY make ALL YOU HOST from “O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?” where Hamlet seeks help to understand the ghost’s revelations and decide what to do.
2A VAST and 33A SEAPLANE make PEASANT SLAVE from “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” from Hamlet’s second soliloquy on seeing that the player seems more able to be moved and to act decisively than he does himself.
21A WING and 5D MOTH make NOW MIGHT from “Now might I do it pat.” when Hamlet sees Claudius at prayer and is tempted to kill him, but realises that Claudius will go to heaven, having confessed his sins.
Finally, 32D GRAFT and 4D INSOMNIA make INFORM AGAINST from Hamlet’s final soliloquy on the justification for the murder of Claudius “How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge!”
The random placement of the pairs and some tricky clues meant that I believe Phi has set us a difficult puzzle this week. I look forward to your comments.
In the diagram below the highlights in yellow are to be made in the final grid. The other colours indicate the paired entries.
Across |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid Entry | Wordplay |
| 2 | Massive loathing? Have to show this, if so (7) | VAST | PEASANT | Thanks to OPatrick at #1: If you take V AS T, haVe becomes haTe (loathing). |
| 7 | Gripped Kindle — hardly recalled removing covers (5) | HELD | SOLID | Hidden reversed in KinDLE Hardly |
| 11 | Leader of tribe I have left after setback (4) | LEVI | I’VE L(eft) reversed | |
| 12 | Act strikingly in sight mostly — expression of personality (6) | EGOITY | GO IT (act strikingly) in EY(e) (sight mostly) | |
| 13 | Property regulation implying wall is knocked over? (7, 2 words) | LAND LAW | L AND LAW = WALL reversed | |
| 14 | Queen featured in Elizabethan news? (4) | ANNE | Hidden reversed in ElizabethAN NEws | |
| 15 | Old type returned every seven days when editor’s away (4) | YLKE | (Old spelling of ilk): WEEKLY minus WE (editorial and royal use meaning I) reversed | |
| 17 | Reserve cricketers in possession of old craft (8) | ICEBOATS | ICE (reserve) + BATS (cricketers) round O(ld) | |
| 19 | Poet’s love promising deliverance (not this writer) (8) | OSSIANIC | O (love) + (ME)SSIANIC minus ME (this writer) | |
| 21 | Rug used around new part of building (5) | WING | MIGHT | WIG (rug) round N(ew) |
| 25 | Cigar not good as exemplary material for students (6) | REALIA | RE(G)ALIA (a big cigar) minus G(ood) | |
| 27 | Advantage once from book over part of Bible (4) | BOOT | B(ook) + O(ver) + OT (Old Testament) | |
| 28 | Fishing board to show shock, ousting leader (5) | OTTER | (T)OTTER (?does totter mean to show shock?) | |
| 30 | Individual‘s after bass fillet (4) | BONE | ONE (individual) after B(ass) | |
| 31 | Doctoring rule involving one twisting bone (6) | ULNARE | [RULE AN (one)]* | |
| 33 | Consult about a scheme to provide island transport? (5) | SEAPLANE | SLAVE | SEE (consult) round PLAN (scheme) |
| 34 | US railway workers make slips, crashing into disused burn (8) | BRAKEMEN | [MAKE]* in BREN (obsolete form of burn) | |
| 36 | Sound of carillon that bloke installed in church (8) | CHIME | WITCHING | HIM (that bloke) in CE (church) |
| 40 | That fine Edinburgh pub (4) | HOWF | HOW (that) + F(ine) | |
| 41 | Hint of excellence in a recording forestalled response (4) | ACED | (In tennis an ace forestalls a response): E(xcellence) in A CD (recording | |
| 42 | ]ack’s somebody engaged in retreating over bullfighting (7) | REJONEO | J(ack) + ONE (somebody) in OER (over retreating) | |
| 43 | Once guided right into place (6) | STEARD | R(ight) in STEAD (place) | |
| 44 | Squeeze close — second boob appears (4) | SERR | S(econd) + ERR (boob) | |
| 45 | Antiquated character, with two sons in contrast (5) | FOSSIL | FLESH | SS (two sons) in FOIL (contrast) |
| 46 | Scots to stop when catching English in naps (7) | SIESTAS | SIST (Scots stop) + AS (when) round E(nglish) | |
Down |
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| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 | Round closed, having secured nothing (6) | SHOUT | ALL YOU | SHUT (closed) round O |
| 2 | Charity events not apparently producing lots of changes (5) | PEALS | (Bell-ringing changes): (AP)PEALS (charity events) minus AP(parently) | |
| 3 | Assistant’s suggestion seeing article promoted (4) | AIDE | IDEA (suggestion) with A (article) to beginning | |
| 4 | Independent man is on rocks, not getting off (7) | INSOMNIA | AGAINST | I(ndependent) + [MAN IS ON]* |
| 5 | Mass of bacteria without hesitation does for insect (3) | MOTH | NOW | MOTH(ER) is a mass of bacteria used in vinegar making minus ER (hesitation) |
| 6 | Local knowledge? Part of party will accept it with time (4) | WITTING | TIME | WING (part of party) round IT + T(ime) |
| 7 | Sudden pain? Cracked up (4) | STAB | BATS (cracked) reversed | |
| 8 | Moth’s convulsive movement not part of behaving madly (4) | LUNA | LUNA(TIC) (behaving madly) minus TIC (convulsive movement) | |
| 9 | One then two articles about fashionable violet (8) | IANTHINE | I (one) + AN + THE (two articles) round IN (fashionable) | |
| 10 | Day’s relaxation no longer arranged (5) | DREST | D(ay) + REST (relaxation) | |
| 16 | Garment extension includes a length on a large scale (6) | GALORE | GORE (garment extension) round A + L(ength) | |
| 18 | Corps demanding to capture one tank (7) | CISTERN | C(orps) + STERN (demanding) round I (one) | |
| 20 | Most of small thing I picked up? Hardly anything at all (4) | IOTA | ATO(m) + I reversed | |
| 21 | Car initially kicked by cyclist (6) | MERCKX | (Eddy Merckx, great Belgian cyclist): MERC (car) + K(icked) + X (by) | |
| 22 | Quantity of mud, say, left in rising marsh (4) | GLOB | BOG reversed round L(eft) | |
| 23 | Source of opinion I telephone, mostly of some assistance regarding hitch? (8) | POLLICAL | (Pollical refers to the thumb, used in hitch-hiking): POLL (source of opinion) + I + CAL(l) | |
| 24 | Marks covering American monkey (4) | MONA | M(arks) + ON (covering) + A(merican) | |
| 26 | Description of seaman having no opening on board? (4) | ABLE | (T)ABLE | |
| 29 | Display stand: strange to lose one after inscribing ID (7) | ETAGERE | EER(I)E (strange minus oneI) round TAG (ID) | |
| 32 | Former ruler’s back? That suggests corruption (6) | GRAFT | INFORM | GR (former ruler) + AFT (back) |
| 33 | Metal remains a source of conflict in futuristic library genre (5) | SWARF | WAR (source of conflict) in SF (Science Fiction) | |
| 35 | Drink suppliers disdaining British jugs (5) | EWERS | (BR)EWERS minus BR(itish) | |
| 37 | Sporting group formerly source of madness in supporter (4) | TEME | M(adness) in TEE (supporter) | |
| 38 | No longer enjoys a team’s debut between rugby posts? (4) | HATH | A T(eam) in HH (two rugby posts) | |
| 39 | Woman in Madrid longs to get rid of peseta (4) | INES | (P)INES minus P(eseta) | |
| 40 | Something like bronze ring set in marble (4) | ALLOY | O (ring ) in ALLY (marble) | |
| 41 | Incomplete bar in African music (3) | RAI | RAI(l) (incomplete bar) | |
I breezed through the first few clues and thought this was going to be one of those rare easy solves. Oh no. Soon came to a grinding halt and it was a slow crawl to the end, with google’s help. Finding the paired clues was made slightly easier by having some crossing letters, so you know some of the letters the other answer needs to have, and also you can calculate the lengths. Even so….
I also found WITCHING TIME as my first pair but my knowledge of Hamlet is not much better than my knowledge of Wagner, so although it seemed familiar I couldn’t place it. As a result there was an element of dissatisfaction for me in that I couldn’t make progress in the mid-game without googling for phrases. I would imagine for anyone with at least a sketchy knowledge of Hamlet’s soliloquies this must have been an outstanding puzzle, and even for me it was an enjoyable solve.
In 2A ‘have’ becomes ‘hate’ if you have V as T.
Thanks to Hi and Phi.
There is a blog on the puzzle at: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1401-central-item/
I did make a bit of a mess of my grid though, moving the middle line to the top. Turned out it didn’t make any sense.
Thank you OPatrick. I have amended 2A according to your insight.
Many thanks to Phi for a cracker, and Hi for the blog.
I had a howler with #1400, getting pretty much nowhere fast, so I was very happy and surprised to rattle through this one in quicker than average time for me.
The bottom half of the grid was where I had most joy initially, the top half proving more tricky but started to take shape in the NW corner. Having ?LLY?? at 1D made me think this could be the two word answer (and hence 3-word phrase) referred to in the preamble. Having nailed both SHOUT and ALLOY, it looked like a likely pair, guessing the Y would be scarce. And so it proved….All You Host being my way in to the theme.
Like Hi, I was completely flummoxed with the parsing for 2A so thanks to OPatrick for the explanation there.
A very enjoyable puzzle, one of my faves for the year so far.
I found this trickier than usual and it took a long time to fumble my way to the theme – in my case SOLID FLESH was the way in.
Many thanks to OPatrick@1 for the parsing of 2A which baffled me completely (I spent some time trying to remove SIKA from SVASTIKA which shows how wide of the mark I was)
Great puzzle. Thanks to PHI and to Hi and Ho for the blog
I was away last week so dipped into this one through the week in an attempt (failed !) to complete it without the aid of Chambers or Google. I held out as long as I could, and like BF@6 I came up with SOLID FLESH to start with, this ringing a dim and distant Shakespearean bell which in the end (around Tuesday) I confirmed via Google. This was followed by WITCHING TIME. Last to go in was PEASANT SLAVE largely because it took me a while to see the V AS T parsing in 2A.
I wish I had more time duing the week to really prolong the solving experience and savour each puzzle but hey ho….many thanks Phi, great stuff, you certainly added to my holiday enjoyment…and to HiHoba of course for the blog.
Hi asks how Ho sorted out the pairs in order to create the anagram letters for the entries. I too would be interested in how others did this. I could only do it by reverse engineering from deduced entries in the grid. Once SOLID FLESH and INFORM AGAINST led to Hamlet’s soliloquies it was not too difficult to deduce the other entries and then relate back to the non standard clues.
Thanks Hihoba and Phi. A great puzzle that I really enjoyed solving.
I liked the way that it got of to a swift start and then got harder as the puzzle went on. In the end I needed Hi-ho’s help for the last few parsings.
Yes – quite hard. First up was SOLID FLESH, and a while later WITCHING TIME. The last few had to be double reverse engineered, e.g, with SLAVE at 33a I could see that the other part had to be PEASANT, which would fit at 2a, and subtracting SEAPLANE from PEASANT SLAVE left me with [ASTV]*, which was clearly VAST, and after I while a saw the wordplay for the answer to 2a.
Neat that Central Item‘s central item (middle row) is from the central item in the list of soliloquies (4th of 7). Thanks to setter & solver+blogger.
We are catching up on Inquisitors having been away. Every evening last week whilst recovering from walking stages of the Coast to Coast, we struggled with #1400 – only finishing it after we arrived home although we failed to highlight what was required at the end. We immediately started this one and quickly filled in a number of entries and thought we were on course for an easy solve! How wrong we were.
Our first pair was SOLID FLESH, then WITCHING TIME but the rest involved a lot of backward solving and checking on google. Thanks to Holy Ghost for his comment on the ‘central item’. Our solving experience looks to be quite similar.
Thanks to Hi and Phi.
We were expecting an easy one after 1400, but far from it! A very tough puzzle, but worth persevering with. Our first pair was WITCHING TIME, which sounded familiar but we could not place it. Google led us not only to “Hamlet”, but also to “Hammer House of Horrors” which proved to be a serious red herring. WT is the title of an episode in the TV series and we assumed that the other pairs would be more of the same. When it eventually became clear that this was not the case we returned to the “Hamlet” theme, but made the wrong assumption that all the pairs would be phrases from the same soliloquy, not being aware that there are seven such speeches. That didn’t work either, so we just concentrated on filling the grid by solving the standard clues and working out from the letters that we had what might go in the remaining lights. The grid was virtually full by the time we realised what the letters in the central row might spell: more a “D’Oh!” moment than a PDM. It was then back to Google for the other soliloquies, where it was relatively easy to find key words to confirm the pairs we had and to fill any remaining gaps without actually solving several of the non-standard clues, although we worked them out afterwards to ensure everything was correct.
Thanks to Phi for a stiff but fair challenge.