Another fun puzzle from one of the Independent‘s newer setters.
It’s Tuesday, and Grecian’s previous puzzles have been themed, so it wasn’t hard to see a common thread here. The clues and solutions feature several Roman-sounding names, who turn out to be characters in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (in my case, dimly remembered from O-level English and then checked against the text). As well as Caesar himself we have Ligarius, Trebonius, a Soothsayer, Brutus, [Mark] Antony, Casca and Cinna, along with various references to traitors, conspirators, revolts and an appeal to a lawless mob. And a couple of theatre references too: spear-carrier and dress rehearsal.
However, that’s not all: the grid has a lot of unchecked letters around the edge, which is always a good place to put a hidden message. It’s the Soothsayer’s warning to Caesar that he should BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH.
Lots of good clues here, but among the non-thematic ones I particularly liked the image of a small terrier trotting into the Antarctic as part of a polar exploration. Thanks Grecian for all of this.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 6 | CHORALE |
Hymn Horace composed about Ligarius originally (7)
|
| Anagram (composed) of HORACE around the first letter (originally) of L[igarius]. | ||
| 7 | IDLES |
Relaxes with Latin during day in Rome (5)
|
| L (abbreviation for Latin) inserted into (during) IDES (a day in the Roman calendar, either the 13th or the 15th of each month). It’s a pity that we have IDES here when it’s also part of the theme phrase. | ||
| 9 | ANNA |
Fresh naan bread in Old Delhi (4)
|
| Anagram (fresh) of NAAN.
An obsolete coin in India, so “bread” (slang for money) in old Delhi. |
||
| 10 | SHOP WINDOW |
Give up opportunity for public display (4,6)
|
| SHOP (give up = betray to the police) + WINDOW (a short time in which something is possible = opportunity). | ||
| 11 | MARTYRED |
Conversion of dream try finished like Socrates (8)
|
| Anagram (conversion) of DREAM TRY. For the surface, there have been a number of footballers called Socrates (or variant spellings of that name), in particular one who played for Arsenal a few years back.
Reference to one of a pair of Christian martyrs (Socrates and Stephen) whose feast day is 17 September; or perhaps to the Athenian philosopher Socrates who was sentenced to death for maintaining opinions that the authorities didn’t like. |
||
| 13 | ERRATA |
Traitor in age of mistakes (6)
|
| RAT (traitor) in ERA (an age).
Latin for mistakes; used in English for a list of corrections to a printed text. |
||
| 15 | FERN |
Bog covering head of Robert Plant (4)
|
| FEN (bog = marshland) covering the first letter of R[obert]. | ||
| 17 | STEEL |
In retrospect, General Trebonius gutted to produce blade (5)
|
| LEE (Robert E Lee, general in the US Civil War) + T[reboniu]S (gutted = inner letters removed), all reversed (in retrospect). | ||
| 18 | NEER |
Under no circumstances is Dad leaving cheese (4)
|
| [pa]NEER (Asian soft cheese) without the PA (Dad = father).
Usually written ne’er = poetic or archaic version of “never”. |
||
| 19 | ORACLE |
Soothsayer‘s craft needing no introduction (6)
|
| [c]ORACLE (a traditional small boat = watercraft) without the first letter (introduction). | ||
| 20 | SAPPHIRE |
Blue poet swaps love for anger (8)
|
| SAPPH[o] (ancient Greek poet) with the O (zero = love in tennis scoring) replaced by IRE (anger). | ||
| 23 | SUBCULTURE |
Cryptic clue with Brutus in alternative group (10)
|
| Anagram (cryptic) of CLUE + BRUTUS. | ||
| 26 | OBIT |
Tribute beginning for Omar Little (4)
|
| First letter (beginning) of O[mar] + BIT (a bit = a little = a small amount).
Short for obituary = a written tribute to someone recently deceased. |
||
| 27 | EXTRA |
Old skill making a comeback for spear-carrier (5)
|
| EX (old, in the sense of “formerly”), then ART (skill) reversed (making a comeback).
Spear-carrier = theatre or opera term for an “extra” who appears on stage but doesn’t have to speak, sing, or do any significant acting. |
||
| 28 | LASAGNE |
Angela’s broken dish (7)
|
| Anagram (broken) of ANGELA’S. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ROMAN TUNIC |
Awfully unromantic garment for 2 (5,5)
|
| Anagram (awfully) of UNROMANTIC.
Reference to 2d CAESAR, who is generally depicted wearing a tunic and toga. |
||
| 2 | CAESAR |
Wacky Races without a leader (6)
|
| Anagram (wacky) of RACES, around (without, in the old sense of “outside”) A. | ||
| 3 | HERO |
Conqueror of the Romans (4)
|
| Hidden answer (of . . .) in [t]HE RO[mans].
I’m not convinced by the definition. A conqueror may be considered a hero or a villain, depending on whose side you’re on; a hero is someone who’s done something worthy of respect, but not necessarily a conqueror. |
||
| 4 | BIG WHEEL |
Mogul has important Turner (3,5)
|
| BIG (important) + WHEEL (turner = something that turns).
Big wheel = mogul = an influential person, especially in business. |
||
| 5 | ELAN |
Feel Antony’s intrinsic style (4)
|
| Hidden answer (intrinsic = an essential part of something?) in [fe]EL AN[thony]. | ||
| 6 | CINNA |
Dictator’s criminal conspirator (5)
|
| Homophone (dictator’s = spoken out loud) of SINNER (criminal).
One of the conspirators in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (and also an unrelated character who falls foul of an angry mob because he has the same name). |
||
| 8 | SCOTTIE |
Dog that is following explorer (7)
|
| IE (i.e. = Latin id est = that is) following SCOTT (Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Antarctic explorer).
Common name for Scottish Terrier. |
||
| 12 | DOERS |
Party Queen’s executors (5)
|
| DO (party, as in “a posh do”) + ER’S (the Queen’s). | ||
| 14 | RUN-THROUGH |
Pierce in dress rehearsal (3-7)
|
| Double definition. To stab with a spear, sword or similar; or a final practice before a performance. | ||
| 16 | EN ROUTE |
Fourteen head off touring in Transit (2,5)
|
| Anagram (touring) of [f]OURTEEN without the first letter (head). | ||
| 17 | SHEDLOAD |
A lot of mutinous old heads (8)
|
| Anagram (mutinous) of OLD HEADS.
Slang for a large quantity, as in “I’ve got a shedload of work to do today”. |
||
| 21 | PLEASE |
Appeal to lawless plebeians leaving bin out (6)
|
| Anagram (lawless) of PLE[b]E[i]A[n]S without the letters of BIN. | ||
| 22 | RAISE |
Casca’s last in revolt to step up (5)
|
| Last letter of [casc]A in RISE (revolt, as a verb). | ||
| 24 | CITE |
Quote sense in speech (4)
|
| Homophone (in speech) of SIGHT (one of the senses). | ||
| 25 | UGLI |
At heart, Caligula’s terribly cross (4)
|
| Anagram (terribly) of the middle letters (at heart) from [ca]LIGU[la].
Ugli fruit = a hybrid (cross) between a tangerine and a grapefruit. |
I thought this was a splendid exploration of a theme on a couple of levels: lovely to see the surface theme so well treated – none of it seemed forced – and the nina is very clever indeed. Well done to Grecian.
PLEASE, EN ROUTE, CAESAR, ROMAN TUNIC, ORACLE and CHORALE all got double ticks – but virtually everything else got one! Podium includes a couple of shorties – I loved ANNA’s surface and, likewise, the amusing one for FERN and, yes, the intrepid SCOTTIE terrier deserves a mention. Unfortunately, MARTYRED’s surface didn’t work quite as well for me: there may be/have been footballers called Socrates but a try is a score in rugby which makes them somewhat irrelevant so I’m left with an unlikely image of the philosopher playing the oval game.
Thanks Grecian and Quirister
What a super puzzle! – one right up my street and so cleverly worked, as PostMark says.
I tackle the clues in order, so my first thought for the parsing of 7ac was DIES (day in Rome) + L, but then I realised that there was no indicator for an anagram. I didn’t see the Nina until the very end and by then I was so impressed by the wealth of thematic material throughout that I can’t decide whether I agree with Quirister that it’s a pity that IDES appears twice or whether it’s an extra bit of cleverness.
I had to check that MARTYRED did not apply only to those killed for their religious beliefs but I didn’t think beyond the Athenian philosopher anyway, in view of all the other classical references – Horace, Sappho, Caligula et al.
Quirister, I see what you mean about the definition of HERO but ‘See the conqu’ring hero comes’ sprang immediately to mind and, again, I didn’t think any further.
I share your affection for 8dn.
I enjoyed this puzzle from beginning to end. Top favourites among many great clues were ANNA, MARTYRED, SAPPHIRE, EXTRA, LASAGNE and UGLI.
I don’t think I’ve tried a Grecian puzzle before but I’m looking forward to the next one already. Many thanks to him/her and to Quirister for a fine blog.
If only I’d spotted the theme earlier on it could have saved me all manner of trouble with 6d. As it is, it’s taught me that my knowledge of the characters in Julius Caesar is nothing like as good as it should be. Profuse apologies to my old English teacher!
The appearance of the spear-carrier always makes me smile and the others I really enjoyed were SHOP WINDOW, ROMAN TUNIC & RUN THROUGH.
Thanks to Grecian and also to Quirister for the review.
Thanks both. Some education for me here, including CINNA even though I feel I’ve seen it similarly clued before, whereby I was opting for Conna (probably non-Italian sounding homophone of Conner, one who cons) though I will argue that, had he existed, he would have been by far the worst of the bunch
Very good, apart from 7ac as blogged. I didn’t find the theme too intrusive, and the clues were well-written in the main.
Clever puzzle, even working in a tribute to Michael K Williams, the actor who played Omar in The Wire. RIP.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Thanks Grecian and Quirister.
Very good puzzle, clued tightly.
Didn’t put together the elements of theme…but saw the nina towards the end.
I raced through most of this, but like TFO I tried CONNA at first. ANNA, SUBCULTURE, and OBIT were the highlights for me. Missed the nina, even though I wondered if there was one (I think the fact there were no full words across the top or right-hand side threw me).
All in all a lovely puzzle. Thanks Quirister and Grecian.
Many thanks to Quirister for the excellent blog and to the solvers for your kind comments. Hope to be back here soon. G
Guessed the theme but we failed to spot the nina – even though the grid pattern suggested there was one. And it’s absolutely ages since either of us read Julius Caesar so we’d forgotten some of the characters.
An enjoyable puzzle, though. We liked CHORALE and SHEDLOAD.
Thanks, Grecian and Quirister.
I once played Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar so this rang a lot of bells. I think RUN THROUGH is thematic, too.