When Eimi indicated on this Board that Virgilius, whose themed puzzles appear on Tuesdays, was moving to Wednesday this week, I was pretty sure we would get a themed puzzle for the day. I even thought it was odds-on ROMEO and JULIET would appear and they did in the very first answer. It was a marvellous puzzle with so much thematic material packed into the grid and the clues reflecting it as well. Great fun to solve. The single focus on the theme made it a very quick solve for me.
Solving time: 11 mins (I rarely do the puzzle faster)
* = anagram
ACROSS
7 ROMEO AND JULIET (amour – one jilted)* From Shakespeare’s play. Nicely linked with 18 Down. The surface reading links with the youth of the couple and refers to the play also.
17 AMOR VINCIT OMNIA (Roman a victim in o i.e. love)* Latin for “Love conquers all”
24 LAMINATES Set animal reversed – good double use of “sheet”
26 CUP I’D Roman god of love (with bow and arrow)
28 VENUS AND ADONIS (Susan and Don I’ve)* From Greek mythology
DOWN
2 VERSED Double definition
3 VALENTINE e (energy) for o (love) in Rudolph Valentino, 1920s heart-throb who died young
5 DID O From Virgil’s Aeneid – Queen of Carthage and lover of Aeneas who killed herself
9 SILVIA Shakepeare’s play – Two Gentlemen of Verona “Who is Silvia?” a song in it.
15 RING O The Beatles’ drummer (just in case the “Who are the Beatles?” judge is reading this)
16 DIONYSIAN i (one) in (and noisy)* From Dionysos the Greek equivalent of Bacchus, god of wine.
18 VER(ONE)SE Refers back to 7 across.
19 A GENDA “Gender”
20 M (one)Y LOVE
23 STAN heart i.e. centre of “instance”
PS Eimi’s put this on the Crossword Centre Message Board
“If you’re in the mood for love I heartily (ouch) recommend Virgilius in today’s Indy. Particularly if your name’s Manley.”
Clue: Double today’s date.
My inner pedant begs to note that 18D refers back to 3D — since Valentine was one of the Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Quite an achievement to get a reference to all things lurve in every clue. I failed on 17A though – knew the English version, not the Latin one.
Re 18D, I read it that R&J is set in Verona also, hence the ref in 7 across.