A nicely varied puzzle which I enjoyed. I thought this a good example of how to make a puzzle varied and different without making it obscure or difficult in the process. Thank you Brendan.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SLINGS | Casts, securing fish within seconds (6) |
| LING (fish) in S S (second, two of) | ||
| 4 | SNIPER | Ace shot wading bird, then rook (6) |
| SNIPE (wading bird) then R (rook) | ||
| 9 | PALE | Whiten part of fence (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 10 | GRAMMARIAN | Expert on 8 etc seeing maid put on weight (10) |
| MARIAN (maid from Robin Hood) on GRAM (weight) | ||
| 11 | MORTAL | Socrates, for example, put little time into lesson (6) |
| T (time, little=abbrev) put into MORAL (lesson) – “All men are mortal: Socrates is a man therefore Socrates is mortal” | ||
| 12 | TERRIFIC | Huge blunder in cape I piece together the wrong way (8) |
| ERR (blunder) in C (cape) I FIT (piece togehter) reversed (the wrong way) | ||
| 13 | ADMISSION | Right to enter acknowledgment of guilt (9) |
| double definition | ||
| 15 | ILLS | Health problems as medication’s losing initial power (4) |
| pILLS (medication) missing Power (initial letter of), or missing P (power) at the start (initially). I know some people get very het up over this sort of thing, but either way works just fine for me. | ||
| 16 | CAST | Pitch players rejected (4) |
| triple definition | ||
| 17 | ESPRESSOS | English journalists in emergency call for strong drinks (9) |
| E (English) PRESS (journalists) in SOS (emergency call) | ||
| 21 | SMALL ALE | Outside shopping centre, deal in weak drink (5,3) |
| SALE (deal) outside MALL (shopping centre) | ||
| 22 | SUFFER | Tolerate litigant being interrupted by loud fellow (6) |
| SUER (litigant) contains (interrupted by) F (loud) F (fellow) | ||
| 24 | PRONOUNCED | Noticeable, it’s said (10) |
| double definition | ||
| 25 | ELBA | Island centre for steel bands (4) |
| centre of steEL BAnds | ||
| 26 | CHEEPS | Sounds from clutch perturbed 8 (6) |
| anagram (perturbed) of SPEECH (parts of 8) | ||
| 27 | METHOD | Style of acting characteristic of princely madness (6) |
| double definition – acting tequnique by Lee Strasburg and a reference to Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Polonius says of Hamlet’s speech “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SEAFOOD | Including a fine duck, serves up main courses? (7) |
| A F (fine) O (duck, zero score) inside (with…including) DOES (serves, fulfils a purpose) reversed (up) – food from the main (the sea) | ||
| 2 | ID EST | Part of inside story that is translated (2,3) |
| found inside (part of) insIDE STory – i.e. “that is” in Latin | ||
| 3 | GIGGLES | Laughs with endless delight during group’s performances (7) |
| GLEe (delight, endless) inside (during) GIGS (group’s performances) | ||
| 5 | NO MORE | What’s in name? Romeo tragically passed away (2,4) |
| N (name) and ROMEO* anagram=tragically | ||
| 6 | PARTICLES | Page with pieces, very small ones (9) |
| P (page) with ARTICLES (pieces) | ||
| 7 | READIES | Prepares interpretations about 2 (7) |
| READS (interpretations) containing (about) IE (id est, 2) | ||
| 8 | PARTS OF SPEECH | Kinds of words found variously in other solutions (5,2,6) |
| some parts of speech are found embedded in other solutions: VERB in 19dn, NOUN and PRONOUN in 24 ac, ARTICLE in 6dn. Also various other solutions are words (parts) from Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy (speech). Thanks to rf3435 for pointing this out. | ||
| 14 | INSOLENCE | Cheekiness or laziness involving son rather than daughter (9) |
| INdOLENCE (laziness) with S (son) replacing D (daughter) | ||
| 16 | CAMBRIC | With no end in sight, came by rich material (7) |
| 18 | RESIDUE | All that’s left is to have occupation outside university (7) |
| RESIDE (to have occupation, of a house maybe) containing U (university) | ||
| 19 | OVERBID | Part of proverb identifying possible reason for buyer’s remorse (7) |
| found inside (part of) prOVERB IDentifying | ||
| 20 | GAZUMP | Endless scrutiny you reported over politician’s deal as unscrupulous seller (6) |
| GAZe (scrutiny, endless) U sounds like (reported) “you” then MP (politician) | ||
| 23 | FLESH | Husband with ego upset family (5) |
| H (husband) and SELF (ego) all reversed (upset) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
There are also quite a lot of parts of speech in suffer, slings, no more, flesh – and more that people who know their Shakespeare better will find.
Yes, this was really easy.
Some might even say: much too easy for a Saturday Prize.
Perhaps, that’s true, but how good it is to have the much missed Brendan back on the scoresheet!
I believe 16d is CAMBRIC, with B being BY without an end.
Yes, it really was 12Ac to see Brendan back in the Graun, though I agree it was too gentle a puzzle for the Saturday slot.
As well as the keywords from Hamlet’s soliloquy, there were more literal parts of speech hidden in PRONOUNced, pARTICLEs and oVERBid.
Thanks to Brendan and PeeDee. I sailed through this one as opposed to several puzzles earlier this week. I had trouble seeing SNIPER and GAZUMP was new to me (though easy to parse) and I got PARTS OF SPEECH before catching the “embedded.” Other items from Hamlet include PALE CAST, MORTAL, INSOLENCE, METHOD, and ILLS.
Thanks Peedee and Brendan…good fun.
Missed Hamlet references but grammar and parts of speech were gettable .
I had cambric and most of the themesters were from the most famous soliloquy -and I suppose grammarian also qualifies.
Any lack of difficulty in a Prize was easily outweighed by the ingenuity of the whole thing.
16d With no end in sight, CAMe By RICh
It does make sense if it’s With not one end in sight.
Thanks PeeDee. This was amazingly easy for a prize but I admit I didn’t see the double meaning of “parts of speech” – thank you, rf3435, for pointing that out. And, yes, I had cambric for 16d.
Oops! I can’t spell. CAMBRIC not CAMERIC. How embarrassing.
Didn’t know the Socrates reference – spotted the parts of speech but not the parts of the speech! Thank you Brendan.
Well, I romped through this thinking this is far too easy for a prize. I completely missed the Hamlet references which I suppose makes this a better puzzle than I thought.
Thanks Brendan.
I rarely spot themes, but I can’t believe I missed this one, having known the soliloquy in its entirety for most of my long life, and in spite of the obvious reference to Hamlet in 27a. Maybe if one of the solutions had been ARROWS, preferably in close proximity to SLINGS, the ducat might have dropped …
Thank you Brendan and PeeDee.
A Prize solve within my abilities, so very enjoyable. Like Gladys, I spotted the parts of speech, but not the parts of the speech. SEAFOOD was my last in since I have never regarded it as a main course, though it often is nowadays – I wonder if SEA in line 4 of Hamlet’s speech could be put in bold print?
I enjoyed this, and I appreciate it even more now that the parts of speech in Hamlet have been pointed out to me. (But in mising them I see I’m in good company.)
The ‘other’ parts of speech were VERB, NOUN, PRONOUN, ARTICLE and PARTICLE. I think they should all count.
Thank you Brendan and manehi.
@15 I should have thanked PeeDee, not manehi. Sorry to both.
Also, ‘mising’ would have been better spelled as ‘missing’.
I too saw the grammatical theme, but completely missed the Hamlet one even though I saw the reference in 27a. 🙁
I found it quite easy for a Prize until I got to my last four – two crossing pairs, 11a/1d and 12a/7d. Having got SEAFOOD after finally realising that I had mistyped ADMISSION so the last crosser was D not M, it still took me an embarrassingly long time to remember the “Socrates is MORTAL” syllogism from my philosophy student days. The last two were more of a struggle, but I got there in the end.
I knew “small beer”, but hadn’t heard of SMALL ALE.
Favourites included MORTAL, CHEEPS, GIGGLES and CAMBRIC.
Thanks, Brendan and PeeDee.
A clever puzzle from Brendan that I enjoyed very much. I do remember looking for a theme and failing to find one. I missed out completely on the parts of Hamlet’s famous speech.
What a great surface in “English journalists in emergency call for strong drinks”. There used to be newspaper offices on Deansgate in Manchester and the journalists could always get a drink (not an espresso) at any time of day or night.
Many thanks to Brendan and PeeDee
Lovely to see Brendan back – I enjoyed this one a lot, and did spot at least some of the Hamlet words, but nowhere near all of them.
Thanks Brendan and PeeDee
Really good to see the return of Brendan with one of his typically well-constructed themes !! Afraid that I only twigged to bits of the grammar and none of the Hamlet speech. Also plead ignorance with the Socrates quote.
Did find it on the easier side to actually fill in the grid – having it all done in between ordering dinner and it being brought out (it wasn’t an expressly served meal all the same).
Had not seen low alcohol beer referred to as SMALL ALE before, so that was new learning.
Finished in the NE corner after getting PARTS OF SPEECH – with SNIPER (kept trying to put an A in a wading bird to get ‘rook’ for way too long) and TERRIFIC (clever after one had got it, but hard work getting there !) the last couple in
Thanks PeeDee and Brendan.
Yes, pretty straightforward but beautifully crafted and cleverly assembled.
Over all too quickly but as Oscar Wilde might have said – like a big jam doughnut with cream on top!
Isn’t Shakespeare’s birthday this month?
Thanks all
Despite my absolute failure to find or use any theme I managed to complete this comfortably, just over the third definition, (16a) Itook some convincing.
Peter A. @12
I find your conclusion a little illogical!
Peter A. @12
I find your conclusion a little illogical
There is no such recognised term as small ale. Small beer, yes, which relates to the weaker table beer drunk with meals by all the family when urban water was undrinkable.
Jamie – Chambers dictionary small ale is given as “ale made with little malt and no hops”. This seems to fit the definition of “weak drink” pretty well.