End of Line by Dysart
Two entries are encoded forms of their clued answers, using a separate one-to-one substitution cipher for each (in one a letter maps itself). The change from answer to entry represents a literal reading of a well-known dramatic line. Solvers must make similar thematic changes to two words hidden in the grid (without encryption). They must reveal the speaker by encoding a sequence of letters in the grid, using each cipher equally, and change a checked letter in one entry to result in a thematic name, whose loss has provoked the line. The grid changes affect 21 letters, and result in real words, including a musical surname.
As is often the case, the preamble makes no sense at all on first reading. Then, to make matters worse, I solved 1a straight away, which is often a bad sign. Having solved 1a, I immediately went to 43a thinking (hoping) that the thematic stuff was symmetrical. I couldn’t get it straight away but after solving a handful more, my subconscious piped up solved it for me. Now, with DENMARK and ROMANIA it’s time to start chasing down some red herrings through rabbit holes and blind alleys.
A few internet searches and many red herrings later, I gave up on trying to find any connection between Hamlet, Denmark and Romania.
The whole cipher thingy left me a bit cold as we didn’t seem to really need it. As the first few downs started to emerge as well as the last few downs (intersecting with 43a), the candidate words were PIEBALD and CHARGER, respectively.
A good while later, with a full grid to stare at I set about the task of doing a wordsearch without knowing what words I was looking for. I’ve moaned about that before, of course, but as the saying goes, “that’s a me problem, not a you problem.”
Now a bit of serendipity, I spotted OF YORK in the SW of the grid (in 41a and 42a) and I remembered there being three Es together in the grid (in squares 27 and 28 and the unnumbered square before). In 1a, the original E changed to I so applying the same cipher, I could change EEE to III. And who came from York with III after his name? Good old King Richard III. Applying the cipher to most of row 7, AEROMAKEEE became RICHARD III. I never actually checked to see if the two ciphers were employed equally but I’m sure they were.
I then spotted ENGLAND in the first seven cells in the last column, which could change to MUSTANG. And, after a lot more searching, I found REALM in row 3 (first five cells), which could change to TAKHI.
What do PIEBALD, CHARGER, MUSTANG and TAKHI have in common? They’re all horses. And what did Richard want? Well, according to Shakespeare, after problems with his own horse, he uttered the line, “A HORSE, A HORSE, MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE.” Read more about it by clicking here.
The final thing to do was find whose loss provoked the line. And there it is in the last 6 cells of column 1. SURVEY changes to SURREY, the name of Dicky’s horse according to Billy.
I found a lot of the clues quite tricky with tricky wordplay and tricky definitions but I got there in the end, apart from two which I’ve noted in the table below.
We bloggers are sometimes criticised for calling the solving process a slog. So, instead, I’ll say that I found this puzzle a bit of a struggle/effort/exertion/grind/labor/hike/trek/trudge/tramp (all taken from Chambers Thesaurus) but no less enjoyable for it. Many thanks to Dysart for a good workout.
| Across | ||
| Clue | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 Country doctors drank with men mostly (7) | DENMARK | DRANK+ME[n] (mostly; anag: doctors) |
| 6 Head of espionage, M, stores book bundle (6) | EMBALE | E[spionage] (head of)+MALE (M) around Book |
| 10 Jumble sale with trumpet in is tempting (7) | ALLURES | SALE (anag: jumble) containing LUR (trumpet) |
| 12 Scottish Island made plans to dump its ?sh (5) | ARRAN | ARRAN[ged] minus GED (fish) |
| 13 Jack turned to check on PC linking data (7) | MAPPING | PAM (jack; rev: turned)+PING (check on PC) |
| 16 Disgust when Gloucester ?nally blinded – his eyes suffered this (8) | EVULSION | [r]EVOLUTION (revolt) minus [glouceste]R (finally) |
| 17 Fold page into fancy pleat (6) | LAPPET | PLEAT (anag: fancy) containing Page |
| 20 Woman sat around drinking in this place (7) | THERESA | SAT (anag: around) around HERE (in this place) |
| 22 Wary of what goat displays after child has left (5) | LEERY | LE[ch]ERY (what goat displays) minus CHild |
| 23 Shopkeepers in Fla…t into S & M, bondage and pain ultimately (8) | STOCKMEN | S, M, [bondag]E, [pai]N around TOCK (T in telecommunications) |
| 25 Egyptians they once said Nero made guards (4) | ROMA | [ne]RO MA[de] (hidden: guards) |
| 29 King receives query about twisted tree (7) | SAKSAUL | SAUL (king) around ASK (query; rev: about) |
| 30 Went to Ed about number that Independent has left (5) | RENNE | RE (about)+N[i]NE (minus Independent) |
| 32 Wee amount of pro?t that bachelor leaves (4) | UNCE | [b]UNCE (profit) minus Bachelor |
| 33 Trees re?ected in light on mountain (8) | PLATANUS | SUN (light)+AT (on)+ALP (mountain) rev: reflected |
| 37 Peers out of old stables at Churchill Downs (5) | BARNS | BAR[o]NS (peers; minus Old) |
| 39 Activity in port on vessel navy’s abandoned (6) | VIGOUR | VIGO (port)+UR[n] (minus Navy) |
| 40 Latin name periodically deployed for insects’ organs (7) | ANTLIAE | LATIN+[n]A[m]E (periodically) anag: deployed |
| 41 Force, heartlessly playing tricks, ditched greens (9) | ECOFREAKS | FO[r]CE (heartlessly; anag: playing)+REAKS (tricks) |
| 42 Jake, swapping hands, holds bowler’s last ball (6) | YORKER | YOKE[l] (jake; Left changed to Right) around [bowle]R (last letter) |
| 43 A domain in turmoil, sacri?cing duke for king and country (7) | ROMANIA | A [d]OMAIN (with Duke changed to R (king)) anag: in turmoil |
| Down | ||
| 1 Lichen dis?gured pear just picked up (7) | PARELLA | PEAR (anag: disfigured)+ALL (just; rev: picked up) |
| 2 Maybe Bartok’s top note masked another (3) | E-LA | Help needed on this one |
| 3 News report’s ?rst half is nonsense (4) | BULL | BULL[etin] (news report; first half) |
| 4 Fighting when elite force invades (4) | ARMS | AS (when) around RM (Royal Marines: elite force) |
| 5 Authorized bolt (5) | LEGIT | (double def) LEG IT (bolt) |
| 6 Bank’s leading duo reviewed style (4) | ELAN | LEAN (bank) with first two letters swapped: reviewed |
| 7 Tree apparently stops another rising (5) | MAPLE | ELM (another tree; rev: rising) around APparently |
| 8 Stand with a soldier guarding remains (5) | ARISE | A+RE (Royal Engineer: soldier) around IS (remains) |
| 9 Woolly mammoth found in channel (6) | LANOSE | LANE (channel) around OS (Outsize: mammoth) |
| 11 So these can make loaves ready for So?a (4) | LEVA | L[o]AVE[s] (anag; can make; minus SO) |
| 14 King enters French capital informally in hooded coat (6) | PARKEE | PAREE (sounds like French for Paris) around King |
| 15 What criminal might have left large twisted sleeve? (5) | GLAND | DNA (what criminal may have left)+LG (large) rev: twisted |
| 18 Flower droop (4) | PEAK | (double def) |
| 19 More than one chairman of Motherwell campaigns after Scotland’s lead is lost (6) | PRESES | PRES[s]ES (campaigns) minus S[cotland] (lead) |
| 21 Taverner catches a cough from a local (5) | HOAST | HOST (taverner) around A |
| 23 Old bits of Paris housing upper-class people (5) | SOULS | SOLS (old coins from Paris) around U (upper-class) |
| 24 Is Central American native able to dance in homage? (7) | CANTICO | (double def) CAN TICO (Costa Rican) |
| 25 Sport about to introduce suitable transport (7) | RAPTURE | RU (Rugby Union: sport) around APT (suitable)+RE (about) |
| 26 Term for link to secure when climbing (4) | KRAB | &lit. (I think) [lin]K (last letter)+BAR (secure; rev: when climbing) |
| 27 Engineer reduced waste parts in hardening (7) | ENURING | ENGineer containing URIN[e] (waste; reduced) |
| 28 Poet’s just checking number in ?sh trap (7) | ENSNARE | ENE (Poet’s just) around SAR (fish) containing number |
| 29 Voyeurs might be excited over this view (6) | SURVEY | V[o]YEURS (minus Over; anag: may be excited) |
| 31 Starts off meaning to stop and dry up for Bill (6) | ENSEAR | ?? |
| 34 Georgia’s strict law enforcement refusing roubles for Stravinsky? (4) | IGOR | [r]IGOR (strict law enforcement in USA) minus Roubles |
| 35 Auxiliary in WW1, she sounds beat (4) | WAAC | Sounds like WHACK (beat) |
| 36 Asian chief raising one cross (4) | ANKH | KHAN (Asian chief) with AN (one) raised |
| 38 Part of spiral antenna rising from a wing (4) | ALAR | spiRAL Antenna (hidden: part of; rev: rising) |
I also found 31D difficult to parse and was helped by Ho – Starts off (remove first letters) from SENSE (meaning) and BAR (stop).
In 2D Bartok was BELA Bartok and if you mask the top (i.e. remove B) you get E-LA the topmost note in church music – another note.
Like you kenmac I did’nt bother too much about the ciphers. It all seemed to work fine without them. I found this a very satisfying puzzle to solve, though, I must confess, It did take a while!
I am still on rookie corner on these puzzles.So it was close but no cigar.
I had PIEBALD from the crossers and parsed ROMANIA and saw ENGLAND
So i soon had the famous quotation. But missed the REALM change and didnt quite crack MUSTANG
Must try harder-but I am becoming addicted
Great blog too. Thanks all.
Much enjoyed, though not at all a quick solve. All thanks to Dysart and Kenmac. My wife was startled when at last I cried (on seeing CHARGER) “My kingdom for a horse!” REALM becoming TAKHI was fairly easy to spot, but for some reason I got stuck for a long time on 15d until a happy guess at ENGLAND becoming … well, that was frustrating too until I remembered the preamble’s “musical surname” and discovered that ARRAU really did exist, allowing MUSTANG. Phew.
Sadly I was unable to finish this one, the SE corner had me bogged down for absolutely ages. I’m also not too taken by the ‘cipher’ – there seemed to be neither rhyme nor reason as to precisely why exactly letters were replaced by specific others. I got nowhere with the endgame, despite opting for PIEBALD and CHARGER to replace (the Kingdom of) DENMARK and (the non-Kingdom of) ROMANIA. All in all, for me at least, a bit of a frustrating experience in the end – things felt a little too complicated.
Thanks to Dysart for the puzzle, to kenmac for the blog and to fellow commenters for sharing their thoughts.
I found this to be a meaty puzzle with a well-chosen and well-executed theme.
I completed the grid, although parsing was a bit of a luxury with some of the clues, and I ended up with two not fully parsed (E-LA and ELAN).
Changing DENMARK to PIEBALD and ROMANIA to CHARGER naturally called to mind the famous line, and I decided then to look first for ‘RICHARD III’ in its decoded form, which should end in the sequence ‘EEE’. I readily found it across the middle, and it was satisfying to see how that change made new words going down.
The first of the ‘two words hidden in the grid’ that I found was REALM, which I changed to TAKHI (a new word for me), but it took me a while to identify ENGLAND as the other word and MUSTANG as its replacement. The last thematic change (of one letter) needed some research, and I read the last page or two of the play to find SURREY, overwriting SURVEY.
A very pleasing conclusion to a fine crossword. I enjoyed the clues as well as the theme.
Thanks to Dysart and kenmac.
My clearly inadequate research indicated that Richard’s horse’s name was unknown; so one might think what he lost, was England (but to think this, one would have needed to solve 15d, ‘gland’). Nevertheless enormously enjoyed this one, grateful that Denmark and Romania were simply clued, pleased to discover that they could become horses, and therefore, along with the unsung ‘of York’, nudged to look for Richard (in vain).
I too was puzzled (and alarmed) by talk of ciphers… until I noticed that Richard’s letters were to be found in ‘piebald’ and ‘charger’. Bingo. But I was a long way from seeing what horse ‘realm’ could become, or locating the second kingdom.
Many thanks to Dysart and kenmac
I think we can all agree this one was hard work clue-wise!
Like others, I figured out fairly quickly that the lightly-clued DENMARK and ROMANIA were to be changed, and after a similar Shakespearean excursion to kenmac, I settled on the theme easily enough.
However, it then took forever to make progress on the grid and I was completely thrown by the description of the “cipher” for a long time, as I thought I was expected to find a conversion equation for each (such as “add 3+x letters to convert”) as opposed to merely noting which letter converted to which other one.
Eventually I realised this wasn’t necessarily and backward-engineered Richard III into AEROMAKEEE, which helped me add some missing letters in the middle row. [I did indeed use 5 letters from each “cipher”, a handy hint because a couple of letters were in both words]
I then found REALM and SURVEY quite quickly, but like others it took me longer for ENGLAND because I’d had EMBALM and GRAND originally, not having been able to parse them properly. Luckily there weren’t many other places where the last word could have gone!
Satisfying in the end, but hard work to get there – to quote a previous commentator, “more hand to hand combat than crossword solving in places”!
The kind of Inquisitor I particularly enjoy – a set of rigorous clues that were solvable with a little patience and recourse to the dictionary, and an endgame that was clear and readily gettable too, with all that talk of encoding proving not to be particularly scary after all. I will admit to needing Google for the horse’s name.
I rather enjoyed this one with tougher than average clues, and quite liked the cipher aspect. Somewhat like arnold @7, I used it to decode RICHARD and locate him in the middle row – then noted that I hadn’t used the ciphers equally so went back and added the III. All that, along with SURREY and TAKHI, meant I had only 5 more of the 21 letter-changes to effect, so 2 letters in ENGLAND had to remain, and prime candidates were the A & N.
No-one has mentioned that without the cipher element the entry at 1a could be PYEBALD.
“End of Line” = the last king of the House of York? Thanks to Dysart & kenmac (I think I enjoyed it more than you). And I should thank you for pointing out T = TOCK (23a) and elucidating the wordplay for 15d GLAND.
Came back to this today after leaving it for a week. I was really struggling with the SE corner, and was thinking that the quote was from Hamlet, which was a rotten thought that I was able to correct, and then gradually slogged my way through the grid once I got CHARGER.
Finding RICHARD III was easier than I expected, and I was pleased to be able to eliminate PYEBALD.
ENGLAND was easy to spot, which left me one last kingdom to find. I couldn’t for the life of me see it, so in desperation I passed the grid to my partner, who saw it almost immediately, much to her amusement and my chagrin.
I enjoyed this very much, though it took several sessions of serious thought and grid-staring to fill it all in. I knew what the quotation was, and my son spotted the 3 Es and suggested Richard III could go there. Google helped with the name of his horse.
Unfortunately, despite seeing England easily, I didn’t put enough effort into the endgame – failed to work out the Mustang change and couldn’t spot Realm.
By the way, I have amended my approach for my first look at an Inquisitor, and it seems to be paying dividends. I start with the last down clue instead of the first across clue – not sure why this helps, but it does!