Bonjour! Un petit peu less ceremony with this one – just ten ‘thematically entered’ answers and four unclued entries. Still, there’s some grid highlighting to be done, which always gives one a pleasant feeling of completion – if done properly, at least! I found the clueing to be fair, with some nicely misleading touches. For some reason, the anagrind in 1ac eluded me for some time. There were some nice touches showing a caring hand – the surface reading in 15 was rather better concealed than I would have thought possible with a hidden answer, for instance. 6ac and 35 made me smile, also.
Assumed (correctly) that they were single words, 10 and 34 were long enough to give one a good chance of guessing them – aided, if necessary, by one or two useful online tools. Furthermore, they were specific enough to point one conclusively toward the French Revolution. The regularly-clued Ventôse was the 5th clue of the theme (It was nicely misleading – Ventôse was February/March, not November). I confess, however, that although Robespierre and the Tricoteuses (lit.’a women who knit’: belligerent revolutionary females did this during meetings and executions) were active at the Convention, I have not been able to pinpoint a particular event to which all these clues refer. Aidez-moi!
The ten thematic answers were sufficiently fairly clued to lead one to see what was happening – they were to be entered with the first letter removed. Mmm… headless? What could this mean? Although I can’t see a firm thematic reason for entering half of the clues in reverse, the location of the missing letters did, in a sense, lead you to the guilty party.
Finally, cherchez la femme! I found ‘guillotine’ rather quickly, aide by the unclued and thematic answers. However, having shaded it, this left me with a far from convincing gallows shape. Ah! I had missed the lady herself! The full shape spelled out MADAME GUILLOTINE. J’accuse!
Donc, at le fin of the jour, une assez pleasant bagatelle.
I’m not entirely sure of 6dn, 18 and 29. Any corrections gratefully received. Thanks to nmsindy and Gaufrid.
XXX* = anagram
{xxx} = anagram/homophone/container indicator
< = reversal
xxx = unused letter(s)
ELEATIC = ‘Beheaded’ clue
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TEA DISH | Cook said the ladies used to drink from it (7, 2 words) | ladies used to drink from it: SAIDTHE* {cook} |
| 6 | HEADS | Beans that come up only 50% of the time (5) | beans: ‘heads’ (on a coin) only ‘comes up’ 50% of the time |
| 10 | ROBESPIERRE | Unclued (11) | |
| 11 | GUILTILY | Ugly Italian drops two articles, shaking like a malefactor (8) | like a malefactor: UGLYITaLIan* (drops two articles = no ‘a’ ‘an’) {shaking} |
| 13 | ELEATIC | Philosopher’s fallow land in backward French city (6) | philospher’s (a reference to the Eleatic school): LEA (fallow land) in < CITÉ {backward} (French "city") |
| 14 | HOLY SEE | Absence of dry land reported by Vatican (6, 2 words) | Vatican: homophone of ‘wholly sea’ {reported} |
| 15 | TYMPANO | City MP, a northerner carrying instrument (6) | instrument: ciTYMPANOrtherner {carrying} |
| 19 | DEASOIL | For this reason one enters wood as the sun moves round (6) | as the sun moves round: ins. of SO (for this reason) + I (one) in DEAL (wood) |
| 21 | RATHOLE | Beastly place where artist has to suffer north of the border (6) | beastly place (as in ‘place of a beast’): RA (artist) + THOLE (Scots "suffer") |
| 23 | UNDERGO | Short of work experience (6) | experience: UNDER (short of) + GO (work) |
| 25 | PRIESTS | Those providing religious instruction in easy steps (6) | &lit: ins. of RI (religious instruction) in STEPS* {easy} |
| 28 | DENSEST | Most stupid and backward gang member, second in group (6) | most stupid: < NED (gang member) {backward} ins. of S (second) in SET (group) |
| 30 | GUMSHOE | Detective work in garden chasing sticks (6) | detective: GUMS (sticks) + HOE (work in garden) |
| 31 | ALETHIC | Legislative assembly overturned moral treatise relating to truth (6) | relating to truth: < LA (legislative assembly) {overturned} + ETHIC (moral treatise) |
| 33 | STAMINAL | Staying power and length of male organ (8) | of male organ: STAMINA (staying power) + L (length) |
| 34 | TRICOTEUSE | Unclued (11) | |
| 35 | HODGE | Countryman’s Homeric utterance recalled Goddess of Earth (5) | countryman: < D’OH (Homeric utterance – the reference is to Homer of ‘The Simpsons’) + GE (Goddess of Earth) |
| 36 | VENTÔSE | Spectacular events covering the second of November’s 30 days (7) | 30 days (a month in the French Revolutionary calendar): ins. of O (the second of nOvember) in EVENTS* {spectacular} |
| Down | |||
| 1 | TRICOLOR | Unclued (8) | |
| 2 | EOSIN | English seaman, popular salt (5) | salt: E (English) OS (seaman = ‘ordinary seaman’) + IN (popular) |
| 3 | ABUT | Join a ship heading north (4) | join: A + < TUB (ship) {heading north} |
| 4 | DELAPSED | Criminal pals caught in act went down (8) | went down: ins. of PALS* {criminal} in DEED (act) |
| 5 | SPULYE | Whining in the Home Counties for plunder from Scotland (6) | plunder from Scotland (Scots "plunder"): ins. of PULY (whining) in SE (Home Counties) |
| 6 | HELLO | To back away from Shakespearean greeting (5) | greeting: otHELLO (Shakespearean, no < ‘TO’) |
| 7 | ARISTOS | Unclued (7) | |
| 8 | DELES | Instructions to remove 500 fairies, 5 missing (5) | instructions to remove: D (500) ELvES (fairies, no ‘V’ = 5) |
| 9 | SKYE | Key players finally arranged holiday destination (4) | holiday destination: [KEY + S (playerS finally)]* {arranged} |
| 12 | IOTA | Letter to you turned up in Paris (4) | letter: < A TOI (French "to you) {turned up} |
| 16 | MAD | Obtained chopped nuts (3) | nuts: MADe (obtained ‘chopped’) |
| 17 | CHESTNUT | Type of horse in box with cob, perhaps (8) | type of horse: CHEST (box) + NUT (cob) |
| 18 | TESTCASE | Courts set up to worry about such an action (8, 2 words) | &lit: ins. of <CTS (courts) in TEASE (worry) |
| 20 | ORCHARD | Sourch of fruit or veg (7) | source of fruit: OR + CHARD (veg) |
| 22 | TIN | Vulgar Scot losing king’s money (3) | money: TINk (Scots "vulgar (person)", losing king = no ‘k’) |
| 24 | NOUN | Sister pinching Oscar’s part of speech (4) | part of speech: ins. {pinching} of O (Oscar) in NUN (sister) |
| 25 | RELATE | Shakespeare’s discourse concerning deceased (6) | Shakespeare’s discourse (Shakespearean "discourse"): RE (concerning) + LATE (deceased) |
| 26 | MOTTO | Rising empire wants a new slogan (5) | Slogan: <OTTOMan (empire wants a new = no ‘A N’) |
| 27 | AMICE | What may be worn by minister’s friend at church (5) | what may be worn by minister: AMI (friend) + CE (church) |
| 29 | SITES | Locates great deals on the blower (5) | locates: homophone of ‘sights’ (great deals) |
| 30 | ESTH | Book Queen’s left for one from the Baltic (4) | one from the Baltic: ESTHer (Book of the Bible, no ‘ER’ = queen) |
| 32 | HUSO | Writer given shilling for good fish (4) | fish: (Victor) HUGO, S (shilling) replacing G (good) |
Did not have time to tackle this puzzle, unfortunately, but think 6D may refer to OTHELLO, with to (reversed) removed.
Thanks. I’m far too embarrassed to leave in my original suggestion, so I’ll edit that now.
Hi Mister Sting
“Although I can’t see a firm thematic reason for entering half of the clues in reverse, …”
All the reversed answers were on the left hand side of the grid and so they needed to be reversed in order that their ‘heads’ were within Madame Guillotine and so would be chopped off when the blade fell.
I agree with your parsing for 29dn but for 18dn I had:
CTS (courts) reversed in TEASE (to worry)
Thanks, Gaufrid. That is certainly more satisfying.
Only just tackled this. A superbly elegant puzzle, and a welcome antidote to the previous disagreeably tortuous EV. I wish I’d had it for IQ.
It reminded me of the Independent’s Weekend Crossword #530 (20/8/05) Mme G by Athene.